Every month we send out a free early-childhood song to our email subscribers. (I’m telling you, it’s the place to be!) Sometime they are remakes of popular kid songs, holiday songs (this Halloween song and illustrated book has been the favorite by far!) or one of my tried-and-true songs I’ve used with kids over the years.

This month, it’s a song I wrote while doing a songwriting game with one of my long-term students. She’s a teen and she writes incredible lyrics. I help her put music to them with her guitar, and basically, it’s the best hour of “work” in my whole week.

The game? At the end of most lessons, we pick a title and then challenge each other to write a song with that title before the next lesson. It’s a game I used to play in college with my songwriting buddies . I believe it was actually stolen from Nickel Creek… they used to do it daily on tour. (And yes, you have to do it no matter how crazy the title is. You take turns picking titles and there’s no going back! We once had the title, “Green and Yellow and Pink and Stuff” (okay, that was me)… and my song was TERRIBLE, but my friend wrote one that is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. I can still sing you every word nearly 10 years later!)

On this particular day, my student picked the title “Taking A Chance” and we got two wildly different songs. I eventually changed the title of the song that I wrote, but here is the song and the lyrics:

I’m taking a chance, trying something new

Something I’m a little scared to do

Dust off my cape, stand a little taller

And already, I’m feeling stronger

I am BRAVE.

I am STRONG.

I can do things even when they’re hard.

I have butterflies I don’t want to show

Well, sometimes that’s just how life goes

So take a deep breath and keep moving ahead

One foot in front of the other, my friend

I am BRAVE.

I am STRONG.

I can do things even when they’re hard.

I believe in you, you believe in me,

Together we can do anything!

I believe in you, you believe in me,

Together we can do anything!

I am BRAVE.

I am STRONG

I can do things even when they’re hard.

My hope is that just one kid truly HEARS this song... and those affirmations sink in and impact the way they feel about themselves. I imagine parents playing it on the way to school to combat school anxiety, or on the way to the doctor, swimming lessons, etc.

DOWNLOAD THE CHORDS + LYRICS OF “I CAN DO THINGS” (FREE!) HERE ↓

You may also want to download Our 5 Most Popular Children’s Songs!

Inspiration for this song comes from Brave Living (formerly Brave Girls Club), a community I’ve loved for a long time. They advocate CREATING (art, music, writing), trusting yourself, speaking your truth & lifting each other up. They use words a lot in their art, and especially meaningful phrases like: “I am Brave” and “I Can Do Hard Things.”

Do you have a kiddo in your life who needs a little boost? Even if it’s after our November free email goes out, shoot me an email and I’ll send you the song for free (musicforkiddos@gmail.com) so we can brighten some days just a little bit.

Happy listening,