so i just got my technician license a couple months ago and ive been thinking about learning CW for a while now. i dont really know where to start though. like do i just memorize all the letters first and then try to listen? or is there some specific method people use? i tried just looking at a chart and tapping along but it doesnt really stick. feels like im missing something obvious. any advice would help, even just pointing me somewhere to start would be great

yeah the chart method doesnt really work for most people, dont feel bad about that. the thing that actually clicked for me was the Koch method — you start with just two characters at full speed, like 20wpm, and you dont move on until you can copy them reliably. sounds counterintuitive to start fast but your brain learns the sounds as whole patterns instead of counting dots and dashes. LCWO.net is free and basically built around that method, thats where i started. also honestly just listening to code in the background while youre doing other stuff helps more than you think it would. took me probably 4 months of pretty casual practice before i felt ready to try a real QSO but everyone's different

just chiming in cause i went through this like a year ago — the Morse Toad app is what finally got it to stick for me personally. its kind of gamey which helps if youre the type who needs that. also there are some youtube channels that do like 5 minute daily practice sessions at slow speed which are good for building up. the main thing people told me that turned out to be true is dont try to learn it too slow, you end up counting the dits and dahs and then you have to basically unlearn that later which is a whole thing