Hey Dan,
Welcome to the forums! Plenty of people here who can tell you lots of stuff about Traktor.
Both mouse and keyboard shortcuts should be able to make you play tracks without the controller hooked up.
You might need to check under controllers settings in setup though that all is set up correctly when you are controllerless.
In my personal opinion, beatgridding and adding cue points and such works a lot easier when you have a jogwheel at the ready (I am getting myself a 2nd hand Denon SC-2000 to sit next to my PC and keyboard).
But that’s just me.
Greetinx and enjoy your time on the forum :D.
Chuck
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