dooki wrote:
I assume that we will just a need a keyboard and a USB cable and then garageband will record her keyboard music, no?
So I guess I need help with two questions.
1. is it that easy to incorporate her piano (keyboard) music into Garageband?
Yes.
dooki wrote:
2. There are couple of Yamaha boards on sale on Amazon. Would these work with GB?
Yamaha YPT-220 61
Yamaha YPT-320 61
I believe they will. One benefit of those keyboards is that they are also independent. You can turn them on and play without connecting them to the computer.
A keyboard controller, on the other hand, has no sounds of its own, and so is solely designed to work with a computer (i.e. an application like Garageband). Examples of keyboard controllers are:
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?ID=USBkeyboardcontrollers&do=products.family
A friend of mine actually had one of those Yamahas, didn't use it much, then moved on to one of the keyboard controllers in the link.
Stepping back a bit, it's hard for anyone to evaluate what's best for your daughter without knowing the circumstances, from her interest to your resources.
If someone gave me either one of those keyboards at age 12, I'd have a lot of fun with it for maybe... 10 minutes. The physical keyboards on those models are flimsy and not very satisfying to play. They feel and sound like toys to me - they're not all that substantial. However, I was pretty interested in music growing up, so having an instrument I could sink my teeth into mattered.
On the other hand, those Yamahas are more than enough for many adults, let alone kids. So maybe it's a good "starter" keyboard.
