Let me digress for a moment to say that the beginnings of mental life tend to develop from two fundamental needs: attraction and repulsion, likes and dislikes, approaching and getting away from--these being respectively the positive and the negative aspects of adjustment. The smile is the sign of the positive side. The companion piece of the smile as a taproot is the frown, which gradually develops through crying and is the reciprocal of laughter. The history of the frown and crying is quite parallel to the history of the smile and laughter in mental evolution and in the development of the individual. _Music in play._ While it does serve a purpose as language in social adjustment, the musical activity of the young child is expression for the love of expression itself. This play aspect early differentiates itself from the use of sounds to convey meaning in language. The child composes, rapidly revealing new melodic progressions, new rhythms, new kinds of sounds, and new patterns in the durations of sounds for his own delight in self-expression. Through them he wins manifestations of appreciation from those around him who constitute his audience. He repeats each new achievement as the momentary goal of play until new patterns progressively take their place. In these actions of musical composition, the same mental faculties that we see in the active adult composers are at work, but limited to the child's natural level of successful achievement. He early reveals command of the four elements of all music, as such; namely, pitch, loudness, time, and kind of tone or tone quality; and we observe the unfolding of melody, dynamic expression, rhythm, and richness of tone. Through these he imitates the sounds of nature, speech, music, and noises at his level in the surroundings. In terms of these he develops memories, indulges in fantasy and creative imagination, and gradually begins to think about music. These are the avenues through which the child expresses his needs and urges vocally or instrumentally; but they are music in so far as they are indulged in for the pleasure of the hearing or the making of the sounds themselves. Note that the child composes by performing; therefore, each musical form that he develops is clearly at his command in performance. Notice also that the repetition of achievement is limited by the play attitude of always demanding something more difficult. Composition, performance, appreciation, body response form interlocking steps. That is what makes the procedure natural. The joy of conquest, characteristic of play, is the dominating motive. Here nature has her way in the development of knowledge, appreciation, and skills.