Papamoa musician Tiki Taane played for his smallest audience yet at a charity concert in Papamoa last night.

For the first time, Tiki performed for pre-schoolers at Papamoa First Steps, including his four-year-old son Charlie, raising around $1000 for Starship Children's Hospital.

Tiki performs in front of pre-schoolers at Papamoa First Step. Video and photos by Tracy Hardy.

Starship Hospital has long been a charity close to Tiki's heart, since his brother died of cerebal palsy at the age of seven.

'I've just been around it and the wonderful work they do. (I've seen) how they save lives.”

Tiki opened his performance with the song ‘Lullaby' – a song written when his son Charlie was born, dedicated to him and children at Starship.

'He was six months old when I decided to write a lullaby for him. Once I had written it I had this idea about being able to gift it to Starship,” says Tiki.

'It's kind of become that song.”

Yesterday Charlie was among many pre-schoolers dancing to the spontaneous beats played by his father.

Apart from the songs ‘Over the Rainbow' and ‘Always on my Mind', Tiki says most of his performance was improvised.

'It was exhilarating. I didn't quite know what I was going to be doing. I knew that the kids just wanted to jump around, so I made something up and that seemed to work.

'It was fun, I really enjoyed it.”

Tiki felt no pressure playing in front of his son and says Charlie is used to it.

'I've taken him to many shows around New Zealand and Australia. He's stood in front of 15,000 people before with me at Coro Gold for New Year's Eve.”

He says it is interesting to watch his son grow up with Kiwi artists like Shihad, Holly Smith and Anika Moa.

'He calls them aunties and uncles. He has no idea of the popularity of those people and what they do. It's really cute to see that.

'I really love just having him in that environment because I think for him it's going to open his mind up quite a bit.

'It's pretty amazing because it's a bizarre lifestyle that I have chosen to live and it's really interesting to see my son be born into it.”

Tiki will perform his acoustic tour at Imbibe in Mount Maunganui tonight.