*does the jumping up and down and waving bit again*

While I was doing my work experience in a music shop in Germany last year, I was surprised to find how many books it stocked containing duets for flute and guitar. Now, having a friend that is almost as bad I am for "enjoying playing but not always managing to get round to it" on guitar, I spoke to him about this and we decided we could give having a go at playing some stuff together.

Well that's simple enough. The problem is, any books I've managed to track down this country seem to be very much flute with guitar accompaniment, which while absolutely fine for me, is incredibly boring for my friend! (Especially as he plays the guitar rather better than I play the flute)

So I wondered if anyone could recommend any editions that are a bit more even! And not too easy either, as I'm trying to get back into playing in a slightly more serious way.

Thanks x

Try www.justflutes.com, I know they have a lot of flute and guitar stuff, and also they are generally pretty good at looking at stuff and giving you an idea of what it is like; you can ring them up, or place an enquiry for them to ring you back.

You could have a look at the New World Dances by Golland. They're really for recorder, but work for flute as well. Not sure how easy the guitar accompaniments are (they look scary to me - I learnt guitar for a while), but the pieces are great fun. I'd LOVE to find a guitarist to play them with... so if you decide to have a go, do let me know how hard your friend thinks the accompaniments are so I know what sort of guitarist I need to be looking for!

Flute & Guitar page ...there you go!

These people publish arrangements and also original material for flute and guitar. You can order directly from them, and also one or two of their books are on Amazon.

I have one, which Viohazard and I occasionally play from - the pieces are SHORT and EASY, but pleasant. I'm afraid I can't tell you which one I have, as I lent it to Viohazard's guitar teacher to lend to a new student whose brother plays flute...that should tell you that it's approachable music!

The pieces aren't all flute showcases - some are definitely more solid guitar work, and in quite a lot of pieces, the melody passes back and forth between the two instruments.

Piazolla is really good. There are good Baroque duets as well, like Guliani, or arrangements.

Forgot to say, welcome back!

Thanks for the suggestions, would appear it's a case of trial and error; and keep hunting for what works, bit like most music I guess!

I think my next mission is going to have to take my friend with me music shopping, as he doesn't understand a thing about flute music and vice versa. The problem is, the concept of going shopping with a girl seem to strike mortal fear into the heart of the average guy... Maybe I'll just have to promise a visit to the music shop only...

I actually played in flute-guitar chamber group this past year (sadly, my chamber partner Sam graduated at the end of this past year too.) It's always a good thing to take advantage of the strengths of both instruments: the flute can carry lyrical or highly technical melodies, the guitar has harmonic capability. That said, we immediately delved into 20th century music.

The first piece we performed was by Joachim Rodrigo, who likes to vary between lyricism and "ugly" harmonies, but he fits them so they make sense musically. The flutist will find the music extremely rewarding, and putting it together with tempo changes and all is actually a lot of fun.

The second piece was Mountain Songs by Robert Beaser. A sidenote: This piece was nominated for an Grammy award. Anyway, if you like things like Copland and Appalachian Spring and American folksy music, this piece is incredibly fun to play. The flute part in the earlier movements isn't too hard on the fingers, but the rhythm might take a few sessions with the metronome to nail. The guitar part is amazing, and Sam reported that it was really fun to practice. There are also lots of movements, so you can pick and choose what you want to play and what you don't.

Hope this helped! Also, I find that professional guitarists know a LOT about flute-guitar duets.