Hi there,

I am somewhat of a babe in the woods regarding all this stuff so please bear with me if I include some background info. that may seem unnecessary in getting to my question. Its the best way I know to communicate my question clearly.

I am a fiddle player and one day was at a friends house and he showed me how he can make his keyboard play a chordal accompaniment to practice tunes with using a MIDI sequencing program on his computer. By doing this he can obtain a reasonable approximation of what a competent real-life piano accompanist could do, and what's more can adjust the tempo to his desired speed for practicing.

So this got my wheels turning and got me thinking how much more fun practicing would be this way compared to that boring old metronome.

Basically I would like to know if I can do this same thing using cubase le sans the actual physical keyboard, and if so, how? I just learned less than an hour ago what a VSTi actually is, and figured out that I need to load one into Cubase by going to Devices>VST Instruments, and selecting one. that's as far as I've come. Although I know my computer (which is a Mac btw) came with a piano sound which I have used in garage band, I can't seem to select it as a VST instrument in Cubase. Is there a way to do this or do I need to download or purchase a different VSTi plug-in, and if so, where can I find one and will it work without a physical keyboard?

And then from there, I am at a loss for where to go as far as what to do to have cubase tell my computer to play the desired notes in the desired timing to create the chordal accompaniment to allow me to practice fiddle tunes with.

I apologize for my ignorance in these matters and appreciate your patience.