Rhyming Whipstick with Lipstick

Charles Jenkins is very, very good with kids. This is the Bendigo Writers Festival kid's songwriting session, which turned out to be an hour of great fun. As the rows filled with students, all colour coordinated in their school's uniforms, Charles is waiting quietly on the side of the room, by the mixing desk. The children are primary school aged, grades 3-6, some with legs still short enough to dangle when they sit in their chairs. Nervous excitement fills the room. There is chatter and constant movement.

But this completely changes once Charles starts the session. The kids are mesmerised. There's not much time, so we're off to write the first song. This is is word association exercise, and the process is completely democratic. Each one of the children gets to co-write the lyric.

The kids do this exercise twice, the pace is fast and the they love it. Half an hour down and they've already written two songs. There is a little interlude where Charles plays the kids a song as an example. They react immediately, and the whole room starts singing along to 'Shake it off'. Charles is like a well-intentioned pied piper. He can effortlessly engage a hundred children.

Charles asks the kids to identify parts of songs. And this is where it gets very surprising. These primary school aged children know much more than expected about song structure. Their answers go way beyond the standard verse, chorus, bridge. The kids talk about alliteration, symbolism and voice.

Charles' advice is "To get yourself into the song", and he tells us that "Songs can't appear like work."He breaks it down step by step in a way that is not just useful for the kids; this is great advice for any budding songwriter.

We split up into small groups and each school gets a slightly different perspective to write from. The idea is to collect rhyming couplets and for Charles to put these notes together in the song structure.

Waking in the morning - what do you see? Use your five senses. - St Theresa's Primary

The journey to Bendigo. - Lockington Primary

Coming into Bendigo. - New Gisborne Primary

There is still a buzz in the room. The kids have worked hard, now the notes of rhyming couplets get passed back and typed up, as Charles gets to work structuring them to create the song. As he works on the chorus more and more voices join in to sing along. As promised, the song has a massive chorus. I still hear it in my head whenever somebody says the word Bendigo. I guess that means it's a hit.

The teacher said we better go, better go, better go
|: Going down to Bendigo :|