It started as a laugh. My daughter wanted to write a song about her six-year-old twin brothers being immature. Fair enough, the Twinado had earned it. Twenty minutes later, we had a full K-pop track complete with catchy synths, a pre-chorus, and lyrics she’d approved word for word. Enjoy this AI music activity for kids
Then we made a heavy metal version about pink fluffy unicorns. Just to see what would happen.
This is the school holiday activity nobody’s talking about. No instruments. No music skills. No software to install. Just a browser, a free AI tool, and a kid with strong opinions about genre.
Here’s exactly how to do it.
What You’ll Need For This AI Music Activity For kids
- A free account at https://suno.com (the music generator, affiliate link)
- Access to ChatGPT (free tier is fine) or any AI text tool
- A child with at least one strong opinion about anything
- About 20–30 minutes
That’s it. No downloads. No coding. No musical ability required from either of you.
Step 1: Pick a Genre and a Topic (2 minutes)
This is the fun part, and don’t skip it — the more ridiculous the combination, the better the result.
Ask your kid: “What genre, and what’s it about?”
The combinations are the whole game. Some ideas to get you started:
- K-pop about a sibling being annoying
- Heavy metal about something cute (pink unicorns, bedtime, their pet)
- Country music about homework
- Jazz about missing the school bus
Let them choose. Don’t edit their idea. The weirder, the better — the AI handles it fine.
Step 2: Generate Lyrics With ChatGPT (5 minutes)
Head to chat.openai.com and type this prompt — swap in your kid’s genre and topic:
“Write a [GENRE] song about [TOPIC]. Include a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, and a second verse. Also give me a style description I can use in a music generator — include tempo, instruments, and mood.”
Example using ours:
“Write a K-pop song about my six-year-old twin brothers being immature. Include a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, and a second verse. Also give me a style description I can use in a music generator — include tempo, instruments, and mood.”
The AI will generate full lyrics plus a style prompt like: “Upbeat tempo, playful synths, catchy hooks, bright female vocals.”
Let your kid read through the lyrics. They’ll want to make changes — that’s the point. This is their song. Let them edit it. You’ll be surprised how quickly they get opinionated about word choices.
One thing to watch for: ChatGPT sometimes gets weirdly accurate. We got “Twin Tornado” in our output, which is what we actually call the twins. Coincidence? Probably. Either way, my daughter was convinced the phone had been listening. She’s not entirely wrong to be suspicious.
Step 3: Create the Song in Suno (5 minutes)
Go to suno.com and create a free account if you haven’t already. The free tier gives you enough credits for several songs.
Here’s what to do:
- Click “Create”
- Select “Custom Mode” (this lets you paste your own lyrics)
- Paste the lyrics from ChatGPT into the lyrics box
- Paste the style description into the style prompt box (something like: “Upbeat K-pop, playful synths, catchy hooks, female vocals”)
- Add a title — keep it simple, ditch any excessive punctuation
- Hit “Create”
Suno generates two versions simultaneously. Both will be different. Play both, sometimes the second one is the one you want.
The whole generation takes about 30–60 seconds. Your kid will be staring at the screen for that entire minute.
Step 4: Play It, React, Repeat (10 minutes)
This is where it gets good, and your AI music activity for kids come to life
Play the result out loud. React together. The first listen is always the best bit , the moment it goes from “text on a screen” to “an actual song with actual music.”
Then do what we did and mess with the settings.
The Weirdness Slider: Suno has a “weirdness” setting. At 0%, it plays it straight. At 100%, all bets are off. Crank it up and generate again. It might produce something brilliant. It might produce something completely broken. Either way, your kid will have an opinion about it.
Switch genres entirely: Take the same lyrics and change the style prompt. Same words about the Twinado, but now it’s country. Or classical. Or drum and bass. Same content, completely different song and suddenly the activity has legs for another 20 minutes without any new effort.
Step 5: Save and Share (2 minutes)
Suno lets you download your finished tracks. Do it. Your kid will want to play it to someone ,a sibling, a grandparent, whoever made the song about them.
The siblings’ reaction to the heavy metal pink unicorn song is worth more than anything else that happens that afternoon.
What They’re Actually Learning (Without Knowing It)
This isn’t just screen time. Here’s what’s happening under the hood:
Prompt engineering — they’re learning that how you ask AI a question changes the output. Specific beats vague. Every time.
Iterative thinking — generate, listen, adjust, repeat. That’s a creative process. That’s also how software gets built.
Genre and structure — they’ll absorb what makes K-pop different from metal, what a pre-chorus does, why the chorus repeats. Music theory, smuggled in through fun.
Creative confidence — they made something. Something that sounds professional. That feeling doesn’t go away quickly.
The Reality Check
Suno free tier limits: You get a limited number of credits per day on the free plan. For one session with one or two kids, it’s plenty. If you want to go wild over a full day, the paid tier is worth it.
Quality varies: Sometimes the AI absolutely nails it. Sometimes it goes a bit wrong — wrong emphasis, odd pronunciation, strange musical choices. That’s not a bug, it’s the conversation starter. “Why do you think it did that? What would you change?”
It won’t always match the lyrics perfectly: Suno sometimes improvises. The generated track might drop a line or add something that wasn’t there. Again — discuss it. That’s the interesting bit.
This broke for me once when Suno changed its interface mid-session and the Custom Mode moved. If you can’t find the lyrics input, look for a toggle between “Simple” and “Custom” mode — it’s usually hiding in plain sight.
The Quick Version (If You Just Want the Steps)
- Kid picks genre + topic
- Paste into ChatGPT: “Write a [genre] song about [topic] with verse, pre-chorus, chorus. Give me a style description for a music generator.”
- Copy lyrics + style description
- Go to suno.com → Create → Custom Mode → paste both in → hit Create
- Listen, react, adjust, repeat
- Download and inflict on family members
Total time: 20–30 minutes. Total cost: £0.
Try It This Half Term
Start with something personal to your family. An inside joke. A pet’s name. A sibling’s most annoying habit. The AI does better work when the prompt has personality, and your kid will care more when the song feels like it’s actually theirs.
If you try this, I want to know what you made. Hit reply on the newsletter or drop a comment below — especially if you went for something completely unhinged.
And if you want more activities like this — creative, low-effort, genuinely fun — the newsletter is where I share them first. Sub at the bottom of the page. Check out existing ones here
Watch The Full Video
Cliff | AiSD — Systemising the chaos so you can actually enjoy the holidays.