One of the most impressive things about John Paynter was that he was an excellent teacher; not flashy or showy, but quietly unassuming. Numerous friends and colleagues have commented on how he could walk into a classroom of children or adults and with a few quiet words get them all concentrating on making music together and thinking hard about what they were doing. This certainly inspired me to become a teacher, although it took me many years to learn how to direct and organise with apparently such small interventions. He could pick a few apt words and create a perfect environment for working.

Discussing why music was often seen to be an elitist subject where some were excluded because they could not afford or didn't have access to instrumental lessons, John's view was always that it should be elitist, in the sense that it should encourage everyone to aspire to the highest standards. He never patronised people or made them feel inadequate but he had a conviction that everyone should work at the highest level of which they were capable. He was an advocate for the idea that children and young people should have the very best qualified musicians to teach them; his own career showed that with determination and some luck, you could overcome what might otherwise be considered disadvantaged backgrounds.

His careful use of language can be observed in Sound and Silence (Reference PAYNTER and ASTON1968) particularly in the introduction, in Sound and Structure (Reference PAYNTER1992) and again in many of the items selected in Thinking and Making (Reference MILLS and PAYNTER2008) which Janet Mills cleverly devised with him, before her untimely death. He used language sparingly but elegantly and effectively, crafting carefully and taking much time over it. I suspect that his composing was similarly completed very carefully with minute attention to detail, as David Blake suggests in his tribute to his former colleague on the University of York website http://www.york.ac.uk/music/news-and-events/news/professorjohnpaynter/

John Paynter's long relationship with Cambridge University Press began with Sound and Silence, and continued with the Resources of Music Handbooks series, leading to the founding of this journal in 1984. It has given music education a much needed basis from which to consider both research and practice in music education. John showed music education how to be published and to ensure that there was material which aspiring teachers could use. When I trained as a teacher in 1975, there were very few books and fewer journals which trainees or researchers could consult. John's work changed that and those training to teach now have a wealth of materials and articles to refer to. With colleagues, he established Music Education as a respectable discipline, which now has some parity with that of other arts in education. It also provided a platform for debate and the expression of views, which allows all of us to share ideas and develop our thinking – this for me is a major aspect of his legacy.