How to hook a yamaha keyboard up to my macbook pro

The piano book says the USB is only for transferring data, not sound,

Yes, that's because your piano transfers MIDI data, which is different from an actual audio signal. The computer converts the MIDI data into an audio signal which is then played over your computer speakers as music.

so my parents bought me a "USB 2.0 A-to-B Cable" which is a cord that hooks up to the printer/scanner one on my keyboard and the USB port on my laptop.

That sounds like the right cable, although I'm not sure what you mean by printer/scanner. Have you actually hooked up your keyboard and turned it on with Garageband running on your computer? GB should tell you that a new MIDI device is available and ask you if you want to use it.

Hi Heathafeatha,

Not out of luck, this will work!

First, make sure you can physically plug the keyboard to the Mac using that USB cable (it sounds like you can do that, right?).

Then, open a new project in Garageband. Select piano so it should open up with a piano software instrument ready to go. If not, just click the + sign on the lower left, select "software instrument" and click "create."

The track should also be green indicating it's ready.

Then play!

Do you see the meters bubbling next to the right of the "knob" on the piano track? Can you hear anything?

If so, problem solved.

If not, you may have to download a driver. I'm not sure. But often if there's no CD for the Mac, it's because there's no need for it. The device is class compliant and should be recognized without the need for installing another driver. However, if you do need to download a driver, you can go to Yamaha's website and download it from there.

Good luck!