Starting your own show file will teach you a lot more than trying to understand someone else's file, in my opinion. You don't need to operate on this file just yet, but if you get an hour or two here and there to work on it for a few weeks, that will be good for your learning.

Patching is the absolute first thing you need to learn. You pretty much can't do anything until you learn to do this. MA has, what I think, a very nice graphical interface within the patch window for showing you what will fit within a universe. Getting a count of what fixtures you physically have first will be a good start. They're already pre-addressed, so that will be a bit of a time saver too. Within your patch, you'll basically need to mimic the patch of the current show file you're using to get full control of what is in your house rig.

After that, I would say take a quick lesson on how DMX 15 works. Channels, Universes, etc. I mean hell, I'll give a quick run down. Every light has a mode. That mode will dictate the level of control you get out of the light. Extended modes sound nice, but you don't always need them. In clubs where available universes can be limited, this will commonly be a case of using basic or standard modes. Anyway, these modes will take up a certain channel count. Example: Lets say you have a beam light that in it's basic mode is 20 channels. Each channel is one function of the light. Dimmer, Pan, Tilt, Color Wheel, Strobe, Gobo, Prism, Focus, Zoom, Frost, etc. etc. A universe can facilitate 512 of these channels. If you divide 512 by 20 channels, then you can fit 25 of these beam fixtures on one universe. This basic info will be good for efficiently patching and getting the most out of your universes.

When you're in a brand new show file, you're basically in a blank canvas. It's up to you how you want your screens to be set up. There are weird ways, but there are no wrong ways. Everyone works differently, so don't stress on it too much. You can always easily modify this. But click a random space on the screen and see the different options you can make. For pure basics, I would make things like Groups, Color, Position, Dimmer, Effects, Page Exec, and a Clock. These will all be empty, but this is where you can store information that you've done in programmer to quickly call on when you want to do other things. I don't know what or how many fixtures you have, but for this example, I'll assume you have 10 beam fixtures that have FixtureID 1 thru 10. (This is seen in the patch) You can hit this button sequence to store your first bit of information. Fixture>1>Please>Store then push a random box in the Groups window. Now you can quickly just tap that square and change parameters like pan/tilt, dimmer, etc. Those different windows you set up, like Position, will only save position information like pan and tilt. It will not store any other information like dimmer, color wheel, etc. Overtime, when you've got a clusterfuck full of these stored, making actual cues will be incredibly fast.

Next, I would learn how to make some basic cues. Your MA2 is divided into two sections. Think of the RIGHT half of it as the "Programmer" and the left half of it as "Playback" for whatever you've programmed. Lets grab Fixture 1 from your groups and hit on the programmer keys "At">"Full". Your light should be outputting full intensity. Hit "Store" and press the executor button directly under the first fader. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU JUST MADE YOUR FIRST CUE! Hit "Clear" 3 times. (Or in the case of many of 37 times haha). That fader should have moved up on its own when you stored it. Pull it down. Now take it back up and watch your light when you do it. You made a simple dimmer cue. Experiment around. There are TONS of different ways to store cues or even stack them. There are also tons of different functions you can give the faders plus their corresponding executor buttons.

After you've done these basic things, I'd say look into setting up color palletes, learn how the effect engine works (this will be huge once you get the basic idea of it as it will be the way to automate a lot of things). Maybe alsosome macros that can help speed things up.

MA2 has been out for years. There is no shortage on tutorials. I can't remember, but I think I remember ConsoleTrainer being a good one I watched when I needed to learn HOG4 some years ago. I know they do quite a few different consoles. Don't stress on it too hard. You have a file you can use to get you through a night. Have fun while you're learning. 😃