Yodeling
Yodeling (or
yodelling) is a form of
singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal
chest register (or "chest voice") to the
head register (or "head voice"), making a high-low-high-low sound. This vocal
technique is found in many cultures throughout the world.
In
Swiss folk music, it was probably developed in the
Swiss Alps as a method of communication between mountain peaks, and it later became a part of the traditional music of the region. In
Persian and
Azeri Classical musics, singers frequently use
tahrir, a yodeling technique that oscillates on
neighbor tones. In
Georgian traditional music, yodelling takes the form of
krimanchuli technique. In
Central Africa,
Pygmy singers use yodels within their elaborate
polyphonic singing. Yodeling is often used in American
bluegrass and
country music.
All human voices are usually thought of as having at least two distinct vocal "registers", called the head and chest voices, which result from different ways that the tone is produced by the human body. Most people can sing tones within a certain range of relatively lower
pitch well in their chest voices, and then a certain range of relatively higher pitch in their head voices. There is often a gap between these ranges, especially in inexperienced or untrained singers. Experienced singers, who often have control of their voices to the point where these ranges overlap, can switch between them easily to produce high-quality tones in either. Yodelling is one of the most developed uses of this technique, wherein a singer will switch between these registers several times within the same note, at a high
volume. Going back and forth over this "voice break" repeatedly produces one of the most distinctive types of sounds in music.
For example, in the famous example syllable "Yodl - Ay - EEE - Ooooo", the "EEE" is sung in the head voice, while all other syllables are in the chest voice.
* Some good examples of
Alpine yodeling can be heard in the songs of
Franzl Lang,
Stefanie Hertel,
Zillertaler Schürzenjäger,
Ursprung Buam and
Mary Schneider.
* Examples of
country/western yodeling can be heard by
Kerry Christensen,
Elton Brit,
Wilf Carter,
Yodelin' Slim Clark,
Slim Whitman,
Patsy Montana, and in early pre-rock and roll recordings by
Bill Haley.
The Band used yodeling on Up On Cripple Creek. The most notable country and western yodeler was pioneer star
Jimmie Rodgers, who recorded more than a dozen songs under the title "Blue Yodel" with an appended number.
Gene Autry was another country-style yodeler. Recently, Texan
Don Walser has achieved the most recognition and commercial success of any country yodeler.
* Yodeling is less often seen in
pop music and
rock, probably because there is not much of an accompanying tradition of its use. One of the most famous examples of yodeling in
popular music is "Hocus Pocus" by the
Dutch rock group
Focus. International pop star
Jewel is another example - she can yodel, and while she does not truly yodel in her commercial music, her proficiency at it contributes to her vocal style, which features nearly instantaneous transitions between her head voice and chest voice.
*
Soul singer
Aaron Neville was inspired by
Gene Autry's yodelling to develop his unusual
vibrato singing style.
*
Kishore Kumar, the
Indian singer, yodelled in some of his songs. He was the best-known yodeller in
Hindi cinema.
"
Appenzeller" and "
Bravourjodler" are yodeling standards which are performed by many different singers.
The best places for Alpine-style yodelling are those with an
echo. They include
lakes, rocky
gorges, anywhere with a distant rock face, the outdoor areas between office buildings, in a
canoe next to a rocky shoreline, or down a long hallway, and best of all, a
mountain range.
According to the
Oxford English Dictionary the word
yodel is derived from a
German word
jodeln (originally
Bavarian) meaning "to utter the syllable
jo".
An 11 year old yodeler named
Taylor Ware is currently a finalist on the
NBC show
America's Got Talent. She learned all of her yodeling from a book, starting at age 7. She advanced to the finals on
July 12, after receiving the most votes from viewers of the show.
*
Doo-wop*
The Internet Yodeling Course (ten step course with audio samples)
*
Taylor Ware yodeling on America's Got Talent (video)
