Sing-It-Don't-Say-It — The Made-Up Song Game

For a few minutes everything is sung instead of spoken, and the child makes up their own little songs — new words to a tune they know, then tunes that are entirely their own.

  1. Start with a switch-a-word song. Sing a tune the child knows well with new words about right now — to Frère Jacques, “We are cooking, we are cooking, yes we are, yes we are…”
  2. Stop before the last line and let the child sing an ending. Any words, any notes.
  3. Ask for a whole verse: “What should the next one be about?” They choose the subject (the dog, their socks, the rain) and sing it to the same tune.
  4. Now drop the borrowed tune. Announce the rule: “For the next five minutes, no talking — only singing.” Sing a question on any notes you like: “What shall we put on the toast?”
  5. The child sings their answer on a tune of their own. Keep the sung conversation going while you carry on with what you were doing.
  6. If a tune they made up is a good one, sing it back to them, and give it a title so you can ask for it again.

Variation: have two soft toys or puppets hold the sung conversation, or record the child’s song on a phone and play it back so they can hear themselves as a composer.

Requirements

  • Space: Anywhere — it fits around cooking, bath time, walks, and tidying
  • Surface: Any
  • Materials: None; puppets or a phone to record are optional
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child
  • Supervision: Light — adult is the singing partner

Rationale & Objective

Young children are natural song-makers. Observational studies from Moog to Barrett (2006) describe spontaneous “pot-pourri” songs — scraps of known tunes mixed with invented melody and words — as a normal and important part of early musical life, one that tends to fade once children decide that songs only come from adults and screens. This game protects and stretches it. It follows the route music educators recommend: first vary a known song, then improvise freely. Feierabend’s First Steps in Music calls the free stage arioso and treats it as a core part of every early music session; Development Matters expects children to “create their own songs or improvise a song around one they know”; and the Singapore NEL framework asks that children express ideas and feelings through music they create. Fitting new words to a fixed tune also makes the child feel syllables against beats, and singing about what they are doing and feeling gives them one more way to put experience into words.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: giggles and speaks the answer, or repeats your tune and words back; sings an original line only with a lot of encouragement
  • Developing: swaps one or two words in a familiar song; sings short answers on a chant-like tune of two or three notes
  • Proficient: makes up a whole new verse that fits the borrowed tune; sings several original answers in a row with tunes that rise and fall
  • Advanced: invents a song with its own repeated tune or chorus and can sing it again later; makes the music match the meaning (slow and low for sad, quick for excited); starts singing games unprompted

Safety Notes

  • No physical risks
  • Never correct, laugh at, or “improve” an invented song — there is no wrong answer here, and one mocking reaction can end a child’s willingness to improvise
  • Ask before recording, and before playing a recording to anyone else; some children are very private about their songs
  • Do not push a reluctant child to perform. Keep singing yourself and leave gaps; most children join in when nobody is waiting for them to

Hints

  • Playfulness: sing in character voices — opera singer, robot, sleepy bear, tiny mouse — and be gloriously silly yourself so the child sees there is nothing to get wrong
  • Sustain interest: make it a routine with a place attached — the bath opera, the walking-to-school song, the toothbrush song — and keep a list of titles of the child’s best inventions
  • Common mistake: asking for a performance (“sing Granny your song!”). Invented songs are play, not a show; treat them as conversation and they keep coming
  • Limited space: needs no space and no equipment; the car is ideal because nobody has to make eye contact
  • Cross-domain: choosing words that fit the tune works syllables and rhyme (phonological awareness); singing about the day’s events is narrative practice; singing how a toy feels gives words to emotions
  • Progression: fill in the last word → finish the last line → a whole new verse to a known tune → sung answers on own tune → a whole original song → a song with a repeated chorus that is remembered tomorrow

Sources

  • Development Matters (Department for Education, England) — “Create their own songs or improvise a song around one they know”
  • Barrett, M.S. (2006), “Inventing songs, inventing worlds: the ‘genesis’ of creative thought and activity in young children’s lives,” International Journal of Early Years Education, 14(3)
  • Feierabend, J.M. — First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond (GIA Publications) — arioso (child-created tunes)
  • Singapore MOE Nurturing Early Learners Framework — Aesthetics and Creative Expression (express ideas and feelings through music)
  • Moog, H. (1976), The Musical Experience of the Pre-school Child (Schott)
  • Gardner, H. (1983), Frames of Mind — musical intelligence and early song development
  • Teaching Strategies GOLD Objective 34 — explores musical concepts and expression