Do yourself a favor, don't do what I did! I originally tried to learn the code the old-school method of starting very slowly and learning the dots and dashes, or as hams like to say "dits" and "dahs". Most people do this if they don't get some help.
I never got over the step of going from dits/dahs to letters... I always have hear the sounds.... ". -", then say to myself "dit dah", and then translate that to the letter "A". It's a long bad process that I still have to go through to this day.
If you can, just listen Morse code using the Farnsworth method... the letters themselves should be sent faster (like 13 to 15 wpm speed) with a longer space between each letter. Then listen to the code (actually more like listening to the pattern of each sound), and then say the letter to yourself. The idea is to make the individual letters go to fast to try to copy the individual elements (dots/dashes) to count.
If you can skip the intermediate step of hearing the individual dots and dashes, you'll save yourself a lot of agony. It's almost like when you began reading, you would read a word C A T.... CAT! Instead of just reading the letter groups together as a word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
At one time (way back when) when I was trying to get my speed up to pass the 20 WPM Extra exam (back in the dark ages), I *almost* got to the point where I would hear words instead of individual letters, or dots and dashes. But then I passed my exam and stopped doing so much CW (Morse Code) operations. I can remember the first few times this happend, I could hear the words "name", "the", and a few others. It was one of those 'ah-ha!' moments.
By the way, in case you are wondering "CW" stands for Continuous Wave (no modulation). More appropriately maybe should be called ICW for Interrupted Continuous Wave (my interpretation). So most hams refer to Morse code as CW.
Operating Morse code (CW) is a lot of fun when you can enjoy it. To me it's sort of like comparing photography with an oil painting. One is an art form and other is not. I'm not saying that Morse code is an art, but it is similar to learning another language.
http://www.codepractice.com/learning.html
http://www.ac6v.com/morseaids.htm
http://www.morseresource.com/podcasts.php
Here's an online Morse generator:
http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html
To see what I mean about the Farnsworth method, type in the text "This is a test" into the input text box of the Morse generator.
Then set the speed to 5 WPM and press PLAY, this is NOT the Farnsworth method and is a BAD way to learn code (IMHO).
To hear 5 wpm at a Farnsworth method, set the speed to 18 wpm and then set the Farnsworth speed to 5 WPM and press PLAY.
Others say to combine the Farnsworth method with the Koch method. The Koch method was after my time, so I never used it myself.
www.lcwo.net