General midi setup help need please

[bazwillrun]

Wasnt sure what section to post this in, so feel free to move if incorrect.

Young nephew wants to try out recording so I'm giving him my old Alesis io/2 which i've used for years but purely for audio, using only mic and guitar inputs.
He wants to record midi (something i have never done with external controllers ) , hes got hold of an old midi controller keyboard(no usb) and i'd like to get him up and running quickly without a ton of faffing around.

Not sure what DAW hes going to get but ive d/loaded Reaper to test this out.
Have connected the controller keyboards midi out to the Alesis midi in (assuming thats what the midi in is for as green midi led indicator lights up), and then Alesis USB to my PC (Win 10) ...

Have set Reaper midi options to Alesis and track to Alesis midi in all channels, loaded one of the Reaper soft synths but cant get any active midi input signal in Reaper...
Tried using the Reaper virtual midi keyboard and get midi sounds, so seems like im missing a trick here.

Anybody able to help please ?...thanks

[No_Use]

You need to
[1] arm the track
[2] enable input monitoring

then it should hopefully work.