With this issue we enter the seventh year of publication of the BJME. The journal is now established internationally, and this seems a good time to review its performance. We are also changing the colour of the cover. From now on this will change annually after each three issues of the journal for easier identification of the volumes.

Despite the long-established move towards the inclusion of composition as an element of music in schools, many teachers continue to be wary of it. Lack of confidence amongst women music teachers in their own abilities as composers may be a key to this situation. It is suggested that this arises as a result of rarely seeing music by women composers played and studied with the same attention afforded to music written by men. The popular mythology that only men have the ability to compose is challenged, and an argument is made for the inclusion of music by women composers (past and present) in the curriculum of schools and colleges. Practical suggestions are made as to how this can be achieved despite the current lack of resources.

Because art music of the late twentieth century has received little attention in North American school music settings, this paper proposes a rationale as well as procedures for the teaching of one of its emerging styles: minimalism. A brief historical view of the development of minimalism is offered, the influence of Cage's concepts of music as an ongoing [if indeterminate] process is recognised, and the relationship of minimalism to other musical sytles and genres is noted. Listening lessons for works by composers Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Phillip Glass are devised, along with suggestions for performance and composition experiences in the music classroom. Due to its eclectic nature, including the influence of rock and pop music, instruction in the music of the minimalist composers is viewed as a gateway to other art music styles and techniques of the late twentieth century.

This article aims to encourage the provision of the Zimbabwean mbira dzavadzimu in schools as a means of experiencing a novel musical system. It provides an outline of the mbira's cultural context within an oral tradition. The basic structure of the mbira pattern is abstracted and represented by four types of notation which makes the music accessible to a range of people. However, the characteristic ‘inherent rhythms’ that emerge kaleidoscopically from patterns and variations throughout performance give the music an elusive quality, the dimensions of which cannot be captured in staff notation. The simplicity of the separate components of a composition can be individually explored on a variety of instruments, while the resultant combination of its interlocking melodic lines is one of complexity and ever-shifting musical images. The mbira introduces a new aesthetic into the classroom and is ideal for both solo and ensemble playing.

This article is a summary of the influence on the author's practice of classroom observation of four- and five-year-old children working in music. It suggests that a strong emphasis on music in the Reception year is important both for musical and aesthetic development, and for the development of basic formal and social skills across the curriculum.

There have been a number of links established between music and language. As two of the major symbols systems developed by and specific to humans, music and language share a number of characteristics. For example, in their most natural form – i.e. song and spoken word – music and language share the same vehicle for expression, the voice, with a consequent emphasis on the aural medium; indeed the child's first experiences of music and language are often linked.

This paper reviews a number of the perceived commonalities between music and language and discusses the implications these may have for education. The major concepts of music, those duration, dynamics, pitch, tone-colour and structure, are discussed in connection with the ways in which these may be utilised in order to foster linguistic competency.