Robert Priest – how to write songs for children

We had the pleasure of having the prolific Toronto poet, novelist, and singer/songwriter Robert Priest (with David Hynes on guitar) back in the studio to share a couple of his children’s songs. We talked about…

• testing a song on a 6-year old
• moving from writing for adults to writing for children on the same day
• chord choices for children
• writing for younger and older children (the differences)
• kids deserve quality songwriting
• “Inchworm” (an old favourite)
• repetition in kids’ songs
• using words that kids will have to look up (why not?)
• the work habits of a prolific writer
• Gilbert and Sullivan style (The Ships of Bath)
• do you have to have kids to write for children?

Listen to the whole show

Robert-Priest-Lyrics

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