Yodeling...how to get started

Subject: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 12:36 PM

A question was posted as to how to learn to yodel. This is the way I learned. First off, you have to be 'completely' willing to sound awful(like learning the fiddle)at very loud volumes. Yodeling is nothing more than 'clicking' back and forth between your chest and falsetto(head) voices. The problem is most of us smoke or drink our falsetto's away. So, if you smoke it's going to be more difficult, but not impossible. Start out by doing the 'Tarzan yell' as most of us have come to know. This will prep you in the sensation of going back and forth between head/chest voices. Don't worry about maintaining pitch as it's less important at this point than feeling/hearing the 'click' that comes with this skill. Concentrate on the mechanics of 'squeezing ' the back of your throat to obtain the 'head' voice. Once you can do the Tarzan yell pick a note that's comfortable, but in the upper register of your chest voice. Sing the vowel 'Ah'(father). Then 'click' into your head voice holding the same note and vowell, but in a different voice. Don't go up an octave. Stay at the same note. It's different from the Tarzan yell but the process to get the sound is the same. Once you can do this try going back and forth several times in succession. Ok, once that's done then while holding the same note try 'ah then 'ee' while holding your face/mouth in the same position by just raising the back of your tongue(again, you will look/and sound awful, but ya wanna learn or doncha?) Then practice going to intervals within the same chord. For example: if you sing a D(chest) try clicking to an F#(head) and back. Then work your way through the scale to the octave. A good classically trained vocal coach should be able to help you in strengthening your falsetto and pitch problems you will encounter as you learn this technique. Hope this has been helpful. It's exactly the way I started. It's a process and will take time, but it's worth it to learn. Once you can do it and maintain pitch go out and get a bunch of old Slim Whitmen LP's and have at it!

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 12:42 PM

Excellent advice. And may I add some from my brother Alan, who worked himself up to a terrific yodeler this way: do it when you're driving alone in the car. Then it won't matter how awful you sound!

Claire

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 01:08 PM

OK... this is quite interesting.... I guess I'll have to print this and take it a step at a time, it's a little confusing, and I'll have to, obviously, wait until I get home and not try this at work where I am now!

Now, you said: "Sing the vowel 'Ah'(father). Then 'click' into your head voice holding the same note and vowell, but in a different voice. Don't go up an octave. Stay at the same note"...I guess I dont quite know that I can stay on the same note and switch from a reguar (chest) voice to a falsetto - all on the same note? Is that what you're meaning? Hmmmm.. tempted to try it here in the office, but that's probably not a good plan, huh?

Thanks - I really want to learn this...

Lane

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: DonMeixner
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 01:39 PM

I believe Cathy Fink has a very good instruction tape on yodeling. Or find a copy of Bill Staines recording of the Maples.

Don

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 02:01 PM

Brother Alan (and later, in a different car, I) learned by practicing "The Lovesick Blues" over and over again until we got it right.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when you do this in the car, make sure all the windows are rolled up. Otherwise someone might mistake you for an emergency vehicle with its siren going.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 02:12 PM

I keep forgetting to say this:

the reason I heep suggesting -- quite seriously -- that you practice in the car where you know you won't be overheard is that, IMHO, this is a skill that you cannot develop at anything less than top volume.

If you try to hold back for any reason -- if you allow yourself to be the teensiest bit intimidated by your surroundings -- it just won't come.

Claire

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 02:37 PM

Fortunately I have a car with windows AND I live on 60 acres with no one around... so I'm safe there!

Looked up Cathy Fink's tape, but I only find it on CD and its a little expensive... would like to know that its what I need before I spend the $. Are there other resources out there that I should look at?

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: wilco
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 05:04 PM

I've used Kathy Fink's "Yodeling" instruction CDS. The "trick" is to learn to "control" the point at which your voice breaks into falsetto.
The ability to go control going back and forth is yodeling.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 06:04 PM

Two bricks applied at the correct point and time... that is all

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Strupag
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 06:37 PM

Wow! this thread takes me back to when I was a Frank Ifield Fan -
OK I feel good that I admit it now!
When I first heard "I remember you-OO" I was knocked out.
Incidently it had a very similar mouth organ intro as "Love me do" which was being played in Radio Luxemburg at the same time, I believe that this was the first Beatles single - I wonder whatever happened to them!
Anyway Frank went on to do "She Taught Me To Yodele" and I was hooked.
All through my colledge days I was trying to get the "Glottle Break"
I now can do a reasonable version of Lovesick Blues but I still think that Frank was a great yodeler.


Who mentioned Cathy Fink! I met her in Glasgow once and sadly lost touch. Her version of "I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry" catches up with
Hank's deffinitive one! ( Any contacts please PM me)

Andy Stro -oo - pag

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 07:49 PM

Yes, going back and forth from your chest to your head voice while holding the 'same' note is 'exactly' what I meant. It's very difficult at first and will force you to concentrate on your pitch control betweeen the two voices. Another technique I learned from a classically trained singer is to go down the scale in this manner: I'll use the key of 'D' as it's in my range(2nd tenor...you'll have to adjust the key for your voice register). Start on an A note(5th fret on high E string on the guitar)with the vowell sound of 'ee'. Drop to an F#(2nd fret-same string)holding the same vowell sound(ee) to a D note(2nd string-3d fret)again holding the 'ee' sound. While holding the note switch to an 'ah' sound in falsetto. Hold for a few seconds then switch to your chest voice while holding the same note and vowell sound. Then continue down the scale to the lower octave D note in your chest voice. The vowell sounds will look like this: EE...EE...EE-AH-AH...AH...AH...AH...AH...AH...AH...AH   The corrosponding notes will go: A-F#-D-D-D-C#-B-A-G-F#-E-D The 3 D's is a row will all be at the same pitch with 3 different sounds. Remember to hold your jaw still while just moving the back of your tongue to get the ee to ah sound. EE -back of tongue up and slightly pressed against the throat...AH-back of tongue is relaxed. Once you can do this simply practice going up by half steps, but maintaining the same intervals, ie starting at Bb(ee-head) to G(ee-head) to Eb(ee-head, ah-head, ah-chest)then down the scale to Eb(ah-chest). What you're doing is descending from the 5th to the 3d to the tonic(or root)...holding the tonic with 3 different sounds then continuing to the lower octave down the scale. You can practice going lower(start on an Ab to F to Db(C#) and so on until you're comfortable with it. What this exercise, also accomplishes is revealing the 'trouble spot' in your vocal range and how you can strengthen it to where it's not as noticeable(to you or anyone else). Then after a while you can add a metronome if you like. Sorry, to have gone on, but sometimes a lengthy explanation is the only way to get it right. 'Lovesick Blues' is one of the first songs I learned and an excellent yodel exercise. Was making a joke, sort of, but Slim Whitman songs are great, too. And 'Night Rider's Lament' just isn't complete without it.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 08:28 PM

Sorry...just read my explanation and didn't note you need to start in your 'head' voice for these exercises. The first 3 notes are in falsetto and while holding the 3d note switch to your chest voice then down the scale. I hope that's clear ...my fingertips are getting a little raw.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,john c
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 02:00 AM

I dont know if anyones mentioned this place before - its the best and, as far as I know, only yodel course on the net. Just get a huge stock of earplugs in for partners,children, nieghbours, dogs and anybody within a 5 mile radius with a nervous disposition.....

http://www.jodelkurs.de/eng_index.html

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: open mike
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 05:36 AM

the mention of cathy fink and marcy marxer was from me.
I have seen them get a whole room full of folks yodelling.
i think the words went Little old lady who?

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 02:00 PM

Great info all... please keep it coming. Guest, I appreciate the detailed explanation - a little over my head, I think, but I'll take it home tonight and go through step by step. I want to clarify (may be a dumb question) but, when you refer to "head voice", that means the same as falsetto, correct? I understand the chest voice... normal, if you will.. and breaking to falsetto, which I can actually do sort of well... its getting to the right notes in the falsetto that's tricky..

Other guest, thanks for the link.. it looks interesting...

Oh, in the Night Rider's Lament thread, one of you mentioned a song.. "Teach Me to Yodel" or something like that.. any idea where I can find it? I also need to find a recording of NRL with a good yodel to practice from...

Hunting for Cathy Fink too...

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 02:11 PM

"Head" = falsetto?

That depends. I may be treading on dangerous waters (without checking, I'm just guessing there are a couple of hundred ancient threads on this subject), but in my formal voice classes they insisted that if you happen to be of the *female* persuasion, as am I, the head voice is "normal" and the chest voice is something you do as a vocal "trick."

Of course, this didn't stop me from singing tenor instead of the range they wanted to put me in, but then I'm that sort of bear. And besides, who ever heard of a bear singing mezzo?!

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 02:56 PM

Well.. I may be misinterpreting what GUEST wrote in the early posting here: "Yodeling is nothing more than 'clicking' back and forth between your chest and falsetto(head) voices" I understood "head voice" to be where you go (or I do, not being of the *female*persuasion, or a bear) in the upper vocal ranges - but not necessarily falsetto. I'm taking what's being described here to be falsetto, though. Doesn't really matter.. obviously the yodel thing is that break between regular and falsetto, call it what you will... right? Still sounds like a cat with its tail in a door when I try - help needed

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 03:09 PM

I'm rapidly going out of my depth too, because although I consider myself a fairly good yodeler (at least on the basic stuff), I can't even imagine being able to hold the same note while switching back and forth from chest voice to head or vice versa. I have a distinct range in each voice and if they overlap at all, it's only by a note or two.

Hmm. Maybe the trick (for us mere mortals, ursine or otherwise) is to find where the break in your range *is* exactly, and practice switching back and forth there. Once you know what it feels like, maybe you can force your voice to do the same thing higher or lower on the scale...?

Unfortunately I'm at *my* office now and can't try it -- same problem you had yesterday. Maybe I'll go sit in my car...

Claire

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 06:38 PM

Fortunately I can leave my office now and have a long drive home - windows closed. Yes, Claire, I'm having trouble with the notion of holding the same note and making the break... voice wants to go an octive higher - but GUEST indicates that making yourself hold the same note is part of the key.... so I"ll try on the drive home... we'll see..

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 02:15 AM

Yes, head and falsetto are the same. Holding the same note from chest to head voice will strengthen your falsetto in the lower registers(of your falsetto) and by the same token strengthen your chest voice in the upper registers of your(chest voice) range. Once you can hold a note in this manner then try to keep your falsetto at the same volume as your chest voice. This will force you to concentrate on the amount of 'air' you need to force out to maintain pitch/volume when changing 'voices'. Practice good technique then forget about it when 'in the moment' and eventually the tendency to sing incorrectly will feel uncomfortable and you'll be able to 'yodel all night' without your voice becoming ragged. There's dietary considerations, too which will lower your 'phlem count'. Steamed veggies, poultry(no skin), fish and a reduction in diary consumption will contribute to a 'cleaner' falsetto. Taking a 'yogic breathing' course will help in diaphram control and it's my belief smoking is a yodeling inhibitor. Have sung professionally for over 20 years and can still hit a Bb over middle C fairly easily in my chest voice and my falsetto is still very pure(F over high C). Lower range is to a D-2 octaves below middle C. The diet thing will take some time for your body to adjust, but you 'will' be able to tell the difference, especially diary products. Glad to have been able to help. Try to supplement these suggestions with a good vocal coach. They may be able to interpret my somewhat confusing prose syle.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 01:18 PM

Wow... great information. And, I'm "sort'of" getting the idea here. Much more difficult to accurately hit the notes than I expect. It seems that this has to be done in just the right voice range... not too high, or too low.. is that the case or do I just need more practice? How does one find that range?

Any other advice..?

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Rozza
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 01:21 PM

What about Mongolian two-tone singing? Now how do you do that?

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 03:52 PM

Mongolian two tone singing is the practice of 'over-singing' in your chest voice so hard your vocal cords allow a 2nd or 'ghost voice' tone to be heard. It's a very difficult(and dangerous)technique. The 2nd tone gets louder as one learns to concentrate on how to let it through. Not at all similar to yodeling, which has two distinct voices. It's like humming and whistling at the same time. One air source-2 different places combine to get the sound. There was a time when I could do it, but my vocal coach assured me my career would be rather short lived, so I stopped the process. As far as anymore advice goes, I would recommend a complete loss of inhibitions, a life's partner with a high tolerance level and alot of practice and determination. A good friend told me when I started, "Yodeling is just one of things, as a singer you just 'have' to want to do well". Have fun, post back and let us know how it's going. You'll find other aspects of your singing will improve as you get to know the 'feel' of you own capacities.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 04:05 PM

OK... so now I'm finding a range I can work it... well, sort of, anyway... now, what about the "words"... what sounds are used outside of "yo-do-lay-ee-o"?

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Mark Clark
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 11:29 PM

Oh, man! This is so great. I just found this thread and am very excited to try GUEST's suggested techniques. I mastered the Tarzan yell some fifty years back and, though I haven't used it since, the skill did allow me to yodel enough to get through a Jimmie Rodgers or Bill Monroe yodel at need. Still, I've always admired cowboy yodeling but never ran into anyone who even wanted to discuss yodeling, let alone do it.

Nearly all of my yodeling practice has been in the car although some of it has been in the shower. I have had no technique to draw upon, just work till it comes, but there is one thing that seems to work for me. When “clicking” into the falsetto, I found it helpful to simultaneously and suddenly reduce the force used to make the falsetto note. This seemed to improve intonation and smooth out the volume level across the shift. Or maybe I only imagine that it does.

Anyway, thanks GUEST, et. al.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Richie
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 08:26 AM

Lane,

Just did a concert with Doc Watson Sat. night. Doc yodels on many songs sometimes just the standard octave jump, which I also do. On the octave jump you just take the vowel sound of the word you are singing and yodel it an octave higher.

The amazing thing about Doc is that his yodeling has improved over the last ten years, he's almost 80 now.

Doc also yodels (or sings falsetto) entire passages of songs. A similar type of falsetto singing has been done by Barry Gibb of the Bee-Gee's.

So, this type of singing is not just limited to standard yodel sounds.

-Richie

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Allan C.
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 10:25 AM

Let me start with a disclaimer: I grew up listening to Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. Yodeling always seemed to me to be as much a part of their songs as the lyrics. Now, having said that, I thought you folks might find some interest in a few words I discovered recently that comprise an excerpt from "The Cowman's Code of Ethics" by Ramon F. Adams (1949).

"Always before the dance, the boys gathered at the drugstore and the band (Jim Winslow's) gave a little free show...and usually some cowhand would cut loose and sing some song and these boys could really sing (when you found one that could). I've been out here forty-three years and have never heard a cowboy yodel and believe that they would have shot him if he had tried just one time. I still want to shoot these movie cowhands who sing through their noses or yodel and represent their sacred calling as yodeling. Cowhands hummed to quiet their cattle when they were going up the trail at night but there wasn't any damn yodeling."

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 05:28 PM

Richie,
Thanks so much. It seems easier to me to jump an octave, rather than hold the same note and break my voice. The octave seems more natural (IF I can hit the note accurately, which I often don't) On the other hand, forcing myself to break it on the same note, as GUEST explains, does, in fact, seem to exercise my voice somehow and I noticed that my "normal" singing improved after some yodeling attempt sessions...

Would like to hear more about how Doc does it (and you). I'm a big admirer of his music - you play with him? Tell me more.

Allan C. - Great quote, thanks! I would never doubt that "real" cowboys never yodeled, but then, real ones were never as romantic as the hollywood image would lead us to belive - in many other ways...... hey, it's become part of a sector of music and I like it, want to learn it, so I'm not real concerned about what a real cowboy might think. :) And I agree with you about Roy Rogers and the Sons... wonderful music, yodels included.   However, it is an interesting point about how the cowboy would humm to his cattle - if he yodeled and it came out anything like the noise I'm making at this point, a stampede would surely result...

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Richie
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 11:05 PM

Lane,

I teach yodeling and singing falsetto by using certain vowel sounds, one of the easiest is the EE sound. Make a sound like a siren or whistle with a loud wheeeee... Sing as high as you can and bring it down. Another good EE sound is a Yee-ha with the Yee being the high pitch and the ha coming down.

Another good vowel sound is the oo (not O) as in woo-hoo or blue. I do this one when I sing "Bluegrass Boogie" yodeling from a G (open on third string) to a high G (3rd fret 1st string).

In my opinion, these are the two easiest vowel sounds to yodel.

Doc Watson is such a good guitarist that he's under-rated as a singer. He does a great "Milk Cow Blues" and yodels in about a third of his songs. His voice may be a bit weaker at 80 years but he has good vocal control.

My band, Bluegrass Messengers, played three songs with Doc last Saturday. We've played with Doc before and it's always a treat to have him sit in play guitar. Funny thing is we've never rehearsed with him! He played some great improv solos and his back-up skills are extraordinary...he fings ways to fit in with our sound but he'll play different parts, usually a lower bass type part with runs.

-Richie

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:33 PM

Didn't yodelling originate in Switzerland?

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 11:19 PM

Well... this is all a big help, but wow, I'm still having a heck of a time. I can make the breaks OK... and Richie, that G - G is about the right range for my voice as well... but not that I've managed to get this far, I'm having a really hard time with accurately hitting the high notes.... Practice, right? Any other pointers????

Sinsull.. yes, you're right, it was a Scandanavian "invention"... no one really seems to know how it became a part of cowboy music...

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 09:20 AM

Yodeling was used in Switzerland as communication. Early internet? Don't know if it was invented there. Individuals were recognized by their yodel so all within earshot would be able to tell who was saying what to whom across the valleys.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 08:56 PM

Like anything else practice is really the only way to nail it.
The only additional advice I can think of is that when you nail it use it sparingly. It's one of those things that impressses the hell out of an audience the first couple of times. but it can get very old very quickly if over used.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 02:07 PM

Good advice, Stephen... yeah, it could get old quickly!
Guess I'll just keep trying, I'm still having a heck of a time with hitting notes accurately...

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 10:33 PM

Lane, you may want to try Eddy Arnold's 'Cattle Call' which is a 'can't miss' chestnut when done well. As the above poster recommends, yodel sparingly and the effectiveness will be increased...less is more. Have fun!

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: HuwG
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 08:51 AM

Actually, I find it easy to start yodelling:

1. Hold nail or tack between thumb and first finger of one hand.
2. Place end of nail against wall or piece of wood.
3. Take large hammer in other hand.
4. Swing hammer in an attempt to drive nail into target with one blow.
5. OhOWOhOWOhOWOhOW ...

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 11:59 AM

Or you could try this way:


"...Well, the story as is told to me
Was handed down through history
Of a singin' cowboy brave enough to try
To ride the meanest old cayuse
It bucked him off right at the chute
Left him spinnin' way up in the sky.
The bronco jumped up and the cowboy came down
They met at the old saddlehorn
It made a deep impression, you could say it changed his life
And that's how the yodel was born."

from "The Origin of the Yodel," by Douglas (Ranger Doug) B. Green.

Kinda hard to do in the car with all the windows rolled up, tho.

Claire

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:12 PM

Sheesh, today I can't even get a smartass comment off without mucking it up! Though I remember the Riders in the Sky song quoted above as "The Origin of the Yodel," it's listed in the link above as (and possibly really is called) "[That's] How the Yodel Was Born."

Sorry! I'll turn in my saddle pal badge pronto.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Lane
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 12:53 AM

We'll forgive you, ClarieBear....

Oh do lay eeeee

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 01:24 AM

Sex. It all starts with sex.

~S~

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 09:04 AM

WYSIWYG...Are you referring to eveything in general or yodeling in the specific? All the best yodeling 'I've' done has been alone, not so with...well, please enlighten us.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: hank1V
Date: 17 Aug 06 - 01:45 AM

Just say "your old lady too," over and over and faster and faster.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,Michael
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 08:55 PM

Hi GUEST!

Are you still posting here? I would like to keep in touch with you. I am a yodeler and I love your suggestions! I am carrying out a big project on yodeling and would like some of your advice. Also, I am trying to work out a few things that you might have the answers to. Please Email me at [e-mail] if you have a little time.

Thanks and kind wishes,
Michael

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: open mike
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 11:13 PM

the Mongolian or Tuvan throat singing mentioned above
is very interesting. http://khoomei.com/

The fellow at the website here (Steve Sklar)
teaches it and has a band (BigSky) that performs in that style.

it seems that people who herd critters (swiss cows, tuvan yaks, etc)
have perfected this method of singing.

these folks are most famous for this style
http://www.huunhuurtu.com/
there are some Buddhist monks who
do this also, but rumour has it that they
learned it from the Tuvans.
but this is not exactly yodeling,
so i should start another thread....

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,Dairyman's Daughter
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 12:24 AM

Just to clarify on earlier comment that real cowboys don't yodel...

I knew one who did. My dad, whose great-grandparents immigrated to the US from Denmark and started a little ranching operation which was passed down through the family. He spoke Danish and often yodeled to the animals to call them down from the mountain for food.

The horses and *some* cows responded very well. The rest were skinnier.

Thanks for the helpful tips. Dad gave me a few yodeling lessons, but I could never break properly until after he died (more motivation to carry on the tradition.) Hopefully these exercises will help with pitch and control.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: Stringsinger
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 06:43 PM

The Sons of the Pioneers sing Bob Nolan's "Way Out Here". It's an excellent way to start because it's not too busy and requires a relaxed sustain falsetto. It starts out on a high tonic note, dips down a half step, back up again and then down a scale pattern which
drops down a fifth into the chest voice, back up a major sixth, repeats that and winds up on the fifth. Then it starts high on the third of the dominant seventh, down a half step, back up and down a scale pattern then down a sixth to the chest voice, back up, down and back up again and winds up on the third of the tonic chord.

Be careful!   Relax the voice and work for a smoothness, not a harsh break between head falsetto and chest voice. You can hurt your voice if it's done too forcefully.

If you do "Wimoweh" be very careful not to go abruptly into the falsetto from a "shout".

Frank

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,Laura Downing
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 09:41 AM

Wow I just stumbled accross this site and cant believe what i'm seeing. I am a Yodeller from Australia and have just finished record number 8 Its so good to know that there are so many people out there that still love it. Thank you and greatful Laura

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 10:53 AM

I like yodeling, and while searching for yodelers on the Internet, I've come across Kerry Christensen.

If I wanted to do it myself, I would order the learning CD from Kerry Christensen. (Google his name.). There are three reasons I would trust him. He's had training in singing, he yodels constantly, and his regular singing voice remains beautiful.

I distrust the advice to sing loud while learning. It just doesn't make sense, and it could hurt one's voice.

When a little child wants to master going down stairs, do we tell her to run as fast as she can? No. Same idea.

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 11:46 AM

I `ad that Claire Beare in my cab the other day. She got in and started making this `orrible racket, just like a goat`s got lost up a mountain or something.
I said, in a `ighly concerned fashion." `ere Claire. You `aving a fit or something? You wanna go to the `ospital?"
She said, " Nah Jim. take me to Cecil Sharpe `ouse please. I wanna get started on some yodelling".
I said, "I got a better idea Claire. I`ll take you to Cooks Travel. You can get a ticket for Switzerland!!"

Whaddam I Like??

Subject: RE: Yodeling...how to get started
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 12:48 PM

I have been a yodeler for quite awhile. I am a good servicable yodeler but clearly not in the groove of Bill Staines or Ranger Doug.

I have never been able to describe in print how it is done. Frank's advice is the best I've seen.

I learned to yodel because I wanted to do Way Out There as I will die a fan of The Sons of the Pioneers. I found I could yodel the song and sing the song but not in the same keys. How unfair is that?

Don