You may be shocked, but I’m not the kind of player that cracks the manual first! But I am an inveterate button pusher and knob twiddler (probably from my old analog days) and long before I get to the ‘I want to do this’ phase I’m mostly in the ‘I wonder what happens if I do this?’ phase!

I often learn stuff that you don’t really get from a manual, which generally aren’t written as tutorials, more as reference operations manuals.

About the only thing I look up when I first get a keyboard is how to store any happy accidents, and how to avoid messing up the factory settings when I inevitably screw something up! The nitty gritty comes later, after I have noodled around for a while.

One thing I have done for a long time is never sell my current arranger to get a new one. I don’t like the pressure of knuckling down to getting it gig ready too fast. There’s always something cool you’ll find about the OS or workflow that you often miss trying to shoehorn old habits on a new keyboard in a rush to get it to the gig. Plus, I really like to rework my entire repertoire to use the new sounds and styles, or edit my sequences to use better kits and sounds, and that takes time, too. If you force yourself to gig too quickly, you tend to use the legacy data, and consequently sound damn near identical to the old arranger. In which case, why did you just blow a couple of grand?!

Give yourself time to just fiddle around, it’s amazing what you can find out! Most of which you’ll never get from the manual…. I love being surprised. And you often don’t get that if you crack the manual first thing!