Decide whose voice this is
A song from you to him and a song from the family to him are different songs, and the generator cannot tell which you mean unless you say. Write it in plainly: “sung by me”, “sung by our two kids”, “the whole family singing”. Left unsaid, one voice is chosen for you and it is usually a single singer addressing one person.
If the children are in it, put them in properly — names, ages, and one thing each of them actually does with him. “Our two boys” is a fact; “Sam who will only sleep if you read it twice” is a song. A line per child is enough, and it is the part that gets played again.
The description does the work — spend it on facts
A paragraph of praise still produces a generic song. The words that make it his are ordinary and specific: the time he leaves, the voice he does, the thing he sat through and never mentioned. Swap his name for anybody else's and read it back; if it still works, it is not finished.
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| “He is the best dad and works so hard” | “Leaves at 5:40, still does the bedtime story on Fridays” |
| “He always makes me laugh” | “Does the voice from that advert, every time” |
| “He has supported me through everything” | “Sat in the hospital car park for six hours and never said so” |
| “We have a beautiful family” | “Three of us, one dog, and the argument about the garage” |
One more decision worth making out loud: the genre. Left unstated, the arrangement is chosen for you, and a sentimental description tends to get a sentimental ballad. If he drives to work listening to something else, write that instead — the most useful style line is the name of a genre he actually plays.
Length: plan for the room, not the request
Song length follows the lyric, close to line for line. Measured across the site, eight sung lines come back at about a minute, thirty-five at about three, and sixty or more run past four. A description about a whole family tends to produce a long lyric, so expect the upper end.
So decide the setting first. For something he plays alone, or in the car, long is right and there is nothing to trim. For a room — a table, a party, a call with relatives on it — play the first verse and chorus and fade at about a minute, or set an exact length on Pro.
And make it a few days early. Each generation returns two takes, and reading the lyrics back usually earns one more round.
There is no example song on this page. A gift song names the person it is for — and here, often the children too — so nothing in our anonymous pool can be published. If you want to hear a pasted lyric that names nobody, the love song page has one.
Before you press Create
- Who is singing: you, the children, or all of you
- The children by name, with one thing each of them does with him
- One ordinary habit of his that only the household would notice
- One thing he did that he never mentioned
- A genre he actually listens to
- If it has to play in a room, plan to fade after the first chorus
Written and fact-checked by the Tunely team · Updated