so ive been thinking about getting my general and eventually extra and i know morse isnt required anymore but im kind of interested in it anyway, seems like a cool thing to know and people seem to really enjoy cw operating. the problem is i have no idea where to even start. like do you just memorize all the letters first and then try to copy actual transmissions or is there some method that works better. ive seen some stuff about the koch method mentioned a few times but i honestly dont fully understand how it works. also seen lcwo dot net linked somewhere but i dunno if thats the best thing or if theres better options now. any advice welcome, im basically starting from absolute zero here

the koch method is what got me over the hump after trying and failing the old way a couple times. the basic idea is you start with just two characters at full speed — like 20wpm — and you practice until you can copy them at like 90% accuracy, then you add a third character and so on. the whole point is your brain learns to hear the sounds as letters directly instead of counting dots and dashes which is what kills most people. lcwo is fine honestly, i used it for a while. just hamster and morse code ninja on youtube are both pretty good too, morse code ninja especially has a ton of free audio files you can download and practice with at different speeds.

the other thing i'd say is dont try to rush it. most people quit because they set the speed too low trying to count the elements and then they can never get faster. set it uncomfortable from the start. takes longer to get going but you dont build bad habits

yeah what he said about not counting dots and dashes, that'll wreck you. i made that mistake for like two months before someone told me. i just use the morse code ninja stuff on youtube now and honestly ive been making slow but steady progress. also there's an app called morse mania that i use on the bus sometimes which helps. the main thing is just consistency i think, even like 10-15 minutes every single day beats an hour on the weekend