How do you get yourself to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds? That’s the length of time required to wash them clean and clear of the infectious coronavirus so you won’t get the covid-19 disease. Answer: sing a song or a jingle that’s twenty seconds long. Better, sing a song about washing your hands.
One song that everybody knows is “Happy Birthday.” It just so happens to be a three chord song. Sing it twice to get twenty seconds length.
Tired of singing happy birthday? There are plenty of other songs with familiar and easy lyrics to sing to, according to LA Times. The UK papers have suggested the best 20-second easy-to-remember bitsbits of songs to sing to.
NPR reported this phenomenon of trending hand wash songs back in mid-March, including link to a hand wash lyrics generator. Is “Baby Shark” also 20-seconds long or has it been sped up (below)?
More recently, New York Times introduced a handwashing song. There’s no shortage of suggestions on Twitter, such as the one below.
What do you sing when you’re washing your hands? A familiar song? A parody? Your own song?
The second session of this series of “Songs in the Time of Corona” will take place as follows.
Friday April 3, 2020
Here is an original, not a handwash song, but a sad one in our time of coronavirus, for a future session in the “Songs in the Time of Corona” series of workshops and song sessions.