How to Write a Song With Kids: A Simple Step-by-Step

Writing a song with kids starts with a small topic from their own life: collect their words and turn the best phrase into a short chorus that repeats. Put it over three chords that always fit together, such as C, F and G, sing it until the tune comes out the same way twice, and record it on a phone. A first song takes 30 to 45 minutes, with the child bringing the ideas and you keeping the shape.

Songwriting ideas and prompts for kids

Small, specific topics are the easiest to write about, because a child can picture them. A song about sharing an umbrella comes much faster than a song about friendship. Good prompts point at one moment or one thing:

• A list song. Things in my backpack, or everything the cat knocked off the table. Each line is one item, so there is no story to hold together.
• A question song. Where do socks go? The chorus asks the question and each verse guesses an answer.
• A how-to song. How to brush your teeth or make a sandwich, in order. The steps become the verses.
• A song to someone. The dog, or a grandparent who lives far away. Start the first line with their name.
• A made-up creature. What it eats and what noise it makes. The noise is the chorus.
• A complaint song. Bedtime, or broccoli. Kids are very good at these.

Once you have a topic, write it in the middle of a sheet of paper and collect 10 to 15 words around it: things, sounds, colors, places. Write down the child’s exact words, odd ones included: “the socks are hiding from me” beats anything an adult would tidy it into. Then hunt for rhymes and circle the pairs. Easy rhyme families for young writers are -ay, -ee, -oo, -ight, -ed and -ow. Near rhymes like home and alone are fine.

How much the child does depends on age:

Pick three chords that always work

In any major key, three chords fit together in almost any order: the ones built on the first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale, written I, IV and V. In C major they are C, F and G. In G major they are G, C and D. Between them, C (C E G), F (F A C) and G (G B D) contain all seven notes of C major, so whatever tune a child sings in that key, one of the three chords will sit under it comfortably.

Here they are on the instruments most families own. Ukulele shapes read from the G string to the A string, each number a fret:

On ukulele, G7 stands in for G because it is easier to finger. On guitar, skip the F barre chord for the key of C: put a capo on the 5th fret and play the G, C and D shapes, which sound as C, F and G.

For a first chorus, play C, F, G, C with one chord per bar at about 90 to 100 BPM, or C, F, C, G if you want the end of a line to hang in the air. The sock chorus below uses both: its first half stops on G and hangs, its second half lands on C. If the song needs a sad or thoughtful moment, add Am as a fourth chord: C, G, Am, F is the 1-5-6-4 progression, one of the most used in pop, and all four chords belong to C major.

Mind the key for small voices. Children aged 3 to 5 sing most comfortably between middle C (C4) and the A above it, and their strongest notes sit around F and G. In C major, a tune that starts on middle C and never climbs past A stays inside that range. If the highest note of the chorus turns into a squeak, move the whole song down a step or two; if it sinks into a mumble, move it up.

You don’t need to play an instrument for this step. The free online chord player on this site plays the chords of every major and minor key from pads in a browser: pick C major, tap C, F and G, and sing. Gelato Chord, our iPhone app, has seven keys that always play the seven chords of your key, each labeled with its chord name, so a child can find C, F and G by reading the keys and nothing they press is outside the key.

Write the chorus first

The chorus is the part that repeats and carries the title, so it is the part a child will still be singing in the car a week later. Write it before the verses, which then only have to lead back to it.

A shape to copy: eight short lines, one chord (one bar) each, with the title as line 1 and line 5. Here is a made-up example for the sock prompt, over C, F, C, G and then C, F, G, C:

Clap each line as you say it. Lines that share a tune need about the same number of claps; one off is fine. If one line has five claps and its partner has nine, cut words until they match.

For the tune, start with the notes kids already sing on the playground: in C major, the “nyah nyah, nyah nyah nyah” teasing chant uses G, E and A. Sing the title on those three notes and give the highest one, A, to the word that matters most, SOCKS. End the last line on C, the home note, over the final C chord. If a child wants more notes, stay inside the C major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G and A. No two of those five notes are a half step apart, so nothing grinds, whatever order they come in. Put the stressed syllables (WHERE, SOCKS, HIDE) on the strong beats, 1 and 3 of each bar. For a fuller method, see how to write a melody for lyrics.

Verses can be much simpler. Speak them in rhythm or chant them on one or two notes while the chords keep going, which helps children who are shy about singing. A full first song runs verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus; with a 3-to-5-year-old, one verse between two choruses is already finished.

Songwriting activities for kids in class

With a group, the same steps fit a 45-minute lesson:

A few activities make the pieces easier to teach:

1. Piggyback songs. New words to a tune everyone knows. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, the ABC song and “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” share one French melody, first published in 1761 and accompanied in C with just C, F and G. “Brush your teeth and wash your face” fits its first line syllable for syllable, and the tune is already solved.
2. Rhyme relay. Say a word from the word bank and go round the room, each child adding a rhyme. Nonsense words count, and a silly one can end up in the chorus.
3. Chord voting. Play the finished chorus once over C, F, G, C and once over C, G, Am, F, then let the class vote. It shows, without any theory, that chords change the mood of the same words.
4. Grid composing. Older kids can type their chorus tune into Chrome Music Lab’s Song Maker, a free browser grid where each square is a note. The guide to apps and sites like Chrome Music Lab has more tools that suit classrooms.

Put every child’s name on the lyric sheet. Credit matters to kids, quiet ones especially.

Record it and share it

Record the song the day you write it. A tune a child made up drifts every time they sing it, and by the next morning the chorus may have a different ending.

The Voice Memos app on an iPhone is enough. Put the phone about an arm’s length from the singers and farther from the instrument, so the chords don’t drown out small voices. Record the chords alone first, so the child can practice singing over them. Then sing once as a warm-up, record three takes and keep the best.

Then make a lyric sheet with the chord names above the words where they change: C above “Where do the socks go”, F above “Where do they hide”, and so on. Anyone with a piano, guitar or ukulele can play the song from it years later. Add the title, date, key and the child’s name, and keep the sheets in one folder.

In a family, send the recording to grandparents by message or AirDrop. For a class, check your school’s policy before posting children’s voices or names anywhere public, and share through the school’s own channels or an assembly performance. The second song goes faster: keep the same three chords and hand the child a bigger share of the work.