Next week I want to record the piano part for my daughter's upcoming singing exam and possible flute choir in the end of term concert.
I only want sound not video.
I have a video recorder so could use that but I'd rather find an audio only solution.
I don't want to spend more than I need to get a reasonably good recording. It will not be available for public consumption in any form at all. I'm not very technical. I have a laptop so could record on that with a microphone. If that is the way to go has anyone got recommendations for a microphone?
Dora

If it is for her to practise with, I would have thought it would be better for you to play with her each time she practises as you can then stop and practise individual bits as necessary (rather than just playing through from beginning to end every time). This is what I do with my daughter and we usually spend quite a lot of time working on her entrances as she is not always very good at counting bars' rest accurately.

Otherwise, to answer your original question. I record using Audacity (which you can download for free) on my laptop and a cheap external microphone. I wasn't sure if it would work or not and so bought the cheapest microphone the shop sold. You do have to fiddle a bit to find the best place to put the microphone (and out of piano, oboe, cello and trombone the piano is the least satisfactory) but it is possible. The main disadvatage is that I have to record with the laptop using its battery, if I plug it in I get a background buzz.

There is another thread here about recording devices that maybe useful.

I was reading through it the other day as I'm looking at buying the other half some sort of recording device for Christmas. There seems to be some good advice here.

I bought a Zoom H2 after reading various threads here. It's quite manageable even for a technophobe like me and the quality of the recordings is good - so long as you set the recording level properly! The first time I used it was for a school concert where the performances varied quite a lot in volume and the louder ones came out quite distorted because I just guessed at appropriate settings and/or didn't alter them between items. We haven't used it a huge amount, but it's been very good for recording my daughter at home, so she can listen to herself, and I intend to use it next week when daughter's clarinet teacher will record the piano accompaniments for son's euphonium pieces. I really must introduce it to my daughter's singing teacher. Until very recently she was still recording accompaniments on cassette tape for us but she seems to have given up altogether now..

You are right but this requires a level of piano playing way above mine. I can usually, but not always, manage the melody but the accompaniment is entirely beyond me.
I may have to try and deal with this but not in time for 15th December.
Dora

We use an Edirol R-09 which is one of the more expensive of the cheap recording devices. It's probably worth looking on ebay as there are usually some savings to be had. I tried several things before we bought our device, none of them was really satisfactory.

my nephew records his choir (oxbridge college) regularly using a device which slots into his ipod - achieves a good quality which can the be transferred to CD for family use, or listen back for choir to appraise

After much research I bought a Zoom H2. The next day delivery didn't work out but it finally arrived on Thursday and a friend set it up on Friday for me.
The recording was this morning and to my total relief worked out well.
Thanks everyone for the recommendations. They were very helpful.
I suspect this will be well used in the future.
Dora