drum kits and midi keyboard

I was working on a track last night on Garageband, and I had no problem whatsoever playing synths, horns, guitars, etc. on my MIDI keyboard. However, when choose a Drum Kit as my Software Instrument, the keyboard, for some reason or another, doesn't recognize the kit, and I don't hear any of the Drum Kit sounds being played on my monitors when I'm hitting the keys on the keyboard.

Is there some kind of set-up I need to do so that my MIDI keyboard can play drum kits, or can the drum kits only be played on MIDI pads? I don't see any reason why I can't play the drum kits out on the keyboard, but hopefully someone here has an answer as to why that is.

Thanks!!:headphone

Check to see what octave you are in on your keyboard. The drum kits in Garageband are found beginning at "middle C" and a little below. I know that when I'm programming drums with my Midi keyboard I usually have to drop an octive on the keyboard to find the drum sounds that I want.

Just use the step editor in GB; it's a helluva lot easier to get a quality drum part by programming it, than playing it (unless you've got an MPC or E-Kit or something similar)

how would I go about utilizing step editor? I've never utilized that feature.

Garageband should be able to recognize your midi keyboard without much of a problem. Take note that the midi mapping for Garageband's drums software instruments follows General MIDI standard I believe, which basically means you'll find your kick on C1, snare on D1, closed hi-hat on F#1, open hi-hat on A#1, so on so forth. Google it for the full listing.