>> I'm a big believer in reading manuals and viewing instructional videos (wish BB was on Lynda.com), but with 600 pages it's not something you do in a day.

Many of these tips are on-screen, in the yellow fly-by hints. For example, if you hover over the tempo control, you can see the various hotkeys listed in this thread, including

[ and ] for +/-5 bpm
Ctrl-Alt-T to set a tempo
t150 <enter> to enter a tempo of (for example), 150


Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.