# 13 questions to ask your child about music, dancing and going out

Music is the fastest road into a decade. These questions ask for the first record, the dance hall, the song a mother sang at the sink, the Saturday night that got out of hand. Record the answers. A child's exact words at six are a thing you cannot get back.

1. What song do you know all the words to? Sing me the first line.
   Record the line; it is the child's voice at this exact age.
2. What music do we play in the car, and who always wants it changed?
3. What is your dance? Show me, and tell me where you learned it.
   Where they learned it is a person.
4. If our family had a theme tune, what would it sound like?
5. What song makes you want to jump around the room?
6. What instrument would you most want to play, and what is the first thing you would play on it?
7. What music does Grandma or Grandpa like, and what do you think of it?
8. What song do we sing at birthdays or bedtime, and who always sings it wrong?
9. If you could go to any concert, who would be playing, and who would you take?
10. What is a song that makes you sad, and why that one?
11. What music do you hear at school? Where does it come from?
12. Make up a song about our house. What is the first line?
   Children compose on demand. Record it; it is the book's best page.
13. What is the best sound in the whole world?

## How to use these questions

Ask by voice, not by form. Record it. One or two questions a visit is enough; the follow-up ("who else was there?", "what did she say?", "what happened the day after?") matters more than the next question on the list. Tender questions are marked; ask them once, late, and with "or would you rather leave that?" in the question itself.

## About Tellforth

Tellforth asks questions like these by voice, remembers every answer, asks the next question a good listener would, and writes a finished book from what was said: a memoir in the person's own words, or a novel built on the true story. You own every recording. https://tellforth.com