In one of those fits of madness to which I am prone, I suggested to a recorder-and-piano playing friend that we both do grade 1 descant this time round... and accompany each other...

My friend is a much more capable recorder player than she gives herself credit for but lacks confidence, and wants to start off at G1 on the C fingering, which she is more comfortable with (she prefers tenor). She is also a good pianist (G7+ - 8ish) but finds sight-reading tough, and works much better when she has a recording.

I'm a pretty dire recorder player and not that great at piano

I did OK in my treble exam a while back and I think I'll be OK as long as I don't revert to treble fingerings mid-sight-read. I'm the less capable of us both but I have more confidence and more general musicianship to fall back on.

Sooooooooooo........... which of the current G1 pieces have reasonable piano parts? I am grade 5-very-ish, but read the music well even if I can't reproduce it, my friend is way better in terms of actual playing than me but not confident reading the music in the first place. So the easier the better, though if there's a more-challenging-but-doable accompaniment to a better piece then it might be worth a look.

I noticed there is quite a bit of overlap between the pieces I was choosing on from Concert Repertoire for Recorder and First Repertoire for Descant (ed. Adams) - would that be a good investment? The accompaniments were OK as I recall in the treble edition, does the same go for the descant versions?

In general I think we're liable both to be better off with slower, less technical pieces requiring more music, though saying that, my friend is not able to stand to play so nothing for her which requires massively long breaths! Again, reasonable do-able piano parts would help.

Study-wise: Would the van Eyck be a good investment for my friend if she does not already own it?

We may not end up doing all the same pieces but will probably have a shot at at least learning each other's so as better to understand the piano parts.

Hope this makes sense, my brain is mushy, but I wanted to post while I remembered!

Fortunately we'd be doing the exams at a local special visit so at least it gives us a lot more time

All the Grade 1 accomps that I've used have been very straightforward, so I don't think you need to worry!

Pieces my pupils have particularly enjoyed (and that I must have played a million times by now *groan*) are: from List A - Babiole by Naudot and the Branle by Phalese. NB this Branle is EXACTLY the same as the second of the Bransles de Bourgogne - allegedly by Gervaise - on pg 3 (recorder part) of the Boosey & Hawkes 'First Repertoire Pieces for Recorder', descant edition. This is a good book, with lots of easy but attractive pieces going up to about Grade 4 level, so it's well worth buying anyway!

From List B the firm favourite (and mine too, even though I've played it so many times) is Natasha's Hedgehog by Graham Lyons. Unfortunately the book is a bit babyishly set out, with big notes, which I'm not terribly keen on, but the piece is really nice. Runner-up in this list seems to be the Bonsor March.

From List C, Onder de Linde Groene (van Eyck) and Sumer is icumen in have been the all-time favourites, with Corn Riggs and the Keuning study no. 27 coming in next.

And yes, the van Eyck book is a very good investment - apart from anything else, the AB use it for exam purposes up to Grade 8!

What a lovely idea!

Off the top of my head, without going downstairs to rummage, I would say that Babiole for List A is about as easy as you're going to get. Polka from the same book also has an easy piano part. For List B, Scherzino - my pupils love it, much easier to fit parts together than Legend. I'm not a good piano player at all, but can easily get through these two for rehearsal purposes, leaving the actual exam to a proper pianist.

For List C, my favourite is Corn Riggs. I think it's slightly harder than some other pieces on the list, but good to play.

Let us know how you get on!

I need to emphasise how bad I am at piano though

Thank you both very much, this gives me some place to start

I did Grade 1 descant recorder last year and played Polka from First repertoire for Descant recorder, and Legend by Brian Bonsor from The Really Easy Recorder book. My daughter accompanied me and she's Grade 5/6 on the piano. She managed them both really well, although she doesn't play the piano very much these days.

Okey doke - thanks

Need to collar my friend (yet another Sarah) and see what she fancies and how much she's willing to spend.

Thanks folks you're stars!