In December 2002, William Salaman and Piers Spencer completed their five-year term as joint editors of the British Journal of Music Education, having presided over an innovative period in the journal's history. They brought to their task a wide range of experience in music teaching, teacher education, and inspection, which also informed their highly readable and often provocative editorials. Under their editorship, BJME embraced new technology, so that the journal is now available online supported by MP3 files, and features an occasional accompanying CD of musical examples.

What makes instrumental teaching, including vocal teaching, effective? And is this the same in schools and in higher education (HE), including conservatoires? We asked 134 local education authority (LEA) instrumental teachers to state what they believe makes good teaching in schools and in HE, and to list the strengths and weaknesses of the teaching that they recall receiving as students. We found that many teachers believe that good teaching in schools differs from good teaching in HE. There are differences in the beliefs held by teachers with and without qualified teacher status (QTS), and also in those of men and women. Many teachers report that their teaching is influenced by the ways that they were taught, and the ‘peak’ lessons that teachers received often appear particularly influential. We explain the steps we have taken to enable LEAs to apply the findings when planning professional development for their teachers, and suggest further applications.

This paper considers the literature that may inform our understanding of parent–teacher–pupil interactions in instrumental music. It draws on research directly concerned with instrumental music learning and that from the wider psychological, sociological and educational literature concerned with conceptions of effective learning and teaching; conceptions of effective parenting; and dimensions of interpersonal relationships. Finally, a systemic, dynamic model is proposed which may serve to guide future research in the field.

This article reports on a study which investigated the spontaneous instrumental music-making of three- and four-year-olds in typical pre-school educational settings in London, UK. It argues that many prior studies of children's music-making have analysed and evaluated such activity against models drawn from the practices of Western art music and its conventions of analytical theory, and suggests that this approach has certain drawbacks. The study adopted a grounded theory methodology moving through three phases in different nursery classrooms. Each phase was characterised by successive focusing and refinement of methodological tools in response to the emerging findings. Data were collected on videotape which was then repeatedly reviewed, transcribed and categorised. The children's music-making was analysed as relational processes in time and space involving the two-way interplay of child and instrument. Structures in space delineate the child's movement within the spatial potentials and constraints of the instrument design. Structures in time describe how movements and movement ideas were strung together in ever-lengthening portions.

In 1942 the McNair Committee was appointed to consider the ‘supply, recruitment and training of teachers and youth leaders and to report what principles should guide the Board in these matters in the future’. Special attention was given to the needs of music teachers, and the proposals put forward by the Committee provided the framework for the pattern of training for the next 30 years. This article considers the reactions of the Ministry of Education, the Royal Schools of Music and the Incorporated Society of Musicians, making extensive use of archive material. Comparisons are drawn with the training received by music teachers today, with a call for further discussion of the essential skills necessary for effective music teaching.

This article focuses on young musicians' perceptions of their musical and cultural experiences while on a tour of South Africa during the summer of 2000. The young musicians were asked to keep journals throughout the tour in order to be able to recall their reactions and feelings about their various experiences. The comments, particularly the written ones from the young musicians, vividly display the impact of such experiences on their musical and emotional life. While conclusions are incomplete, some implications for the nature of cultural exchange and understanding and music education in general are put forward.

In this paper I explore the musical general knowledge of 46 applicants for places on a secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) music course. The applicants took a 35-question quiz designed to indicate something of their subject knowledge in connection with aspects of the Western art music tradition, knowledge of Western musical instruments and world musics. I will discuss methodological problems related to the use of the quiz results, then analyse the results. The analysis reveals patterns of strength and weakness in the subject knowledge of the applicants that are related to their educational and other musical experiences. Significant absences in areas of knowledge needed to teach the National Curriculum are detected. I then move on to consider the findings in the light of the new Benchmark Statement (QAA, 2002) for music degrees in the UK. Noting that no given body of knowledge is prescribed in the Benchmark Statement that both describes and governs the content of music first degrees, I raise questions about the difficulties this creates for all concerned.