I’m currently working to improve my CW proficiency to be able to work QRP more effectively. I absolutely second your recommendation against trying to learn the

I’m currently working to improve my CW proficiency to be able to work QRP more effectively. I absolutely second your recommendation against trying to learn the Morse alphabet visually. It’s counterproductive. The usual advice I’ve encountered in the CW community is that it’s much better to start learning the aural rhythms of the letters from the outset; otherwise, you put yourself at a pretty serious disadvantage when you’re trying to think in terms of dits and dahs rather than letters and letter groups. You’re interposing a step that will always slow you down in both copying and sending. https://lcwo.net/ https://lcwo.net/ is a great resource to start learning using the Koch Method (characters are learned at 20 wpm speed from the beginning, but with larger spaces between characters to reduce the overall effective speed to make it easier). For the more dedicated, https://cwops.org/cw-academy/ https://cwops.org/cw-academy/ offers a series of online courses with live instructors. I’ve heard great things about them.