At Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, our 'ab initio' [meaning "from the beginning] instructor "Pop" MacDonald would not let anyone near a key until they could actually read morse at 15 wpm (I might be wrong about the speed - it was 50 years ago  ) His introduction to the whole subject was to sit at your desk, arm comfortably bent at the elbow and resting on the desk. Then with your lightly clenched fingers as a fulcrum, raise and lower your wrist in synch with "dit dah" of the character. This helped to get the rhythm right. I think it worked - I would say that my receiving was always subject to mood swings, hangovers, temperature, distractions, boredom, in fact, all manner of external issues but I was always proud that my sending was the best it could be due to Pop's rhythm method. Even when I started using an early Samson electronic key it took me some time to get the dot/dash balance precisely to my satisfaction. I still smile (and shudder) when I hear awful morse being sent with badly formed characters and spaces.

73 

DR 

N1EA