How to Yodel for Men

Practice yodeling in the bathroom or natural echo chambers, like the Alps.

Yodeling is a form of singing practiced by cultures around the world. Originating in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, likely as a form of communication, yodelers sing long extended notes with high-low pitch changes. Men interested in learning how to yodel need to practice modulating notes between chest and head registers, or the "chest voice" and the "head voice." While yodeling mastery takes years of hard work to achieve, with determination (and patient neighbors) beginners can learn to yodel in a few easy steps.

Instructions

1. To find your head voice, sing a tone from your lowest register to your highest. Singing low tones in your chest voice causes the general neck area to vibrate. Place your hand on your trachea and feel it start to vibrate as you shift to head voice. Your falsetto lies in this transition range from chest to head voice. In unskilled singers, this transition will sound abrupt, as the voice switches registers from low to high. Skilled yodelers are able to blend chest and head voices, transitioning smoothly between ranges.

2. Practice changing registers. Change from chest voice to head voice and back while singing the famous line "yo-de-lay-hee-hoo." Sing "yo-de-lay" in mid-chest voice, "hee" in high head voice and "hoo" in your lowest chest voice. Pay attention to how vibrations rise in your head as your tone rises; likewise, vibrations should descend into your neck as you move to a lower register.

3. Sing a variety of nonsense tones while increasing the involvement of your chest voice. Stick to easier-to-sing closed vowel sounds when beginning to yodel. Note the bottom tone of your chest voice; in men, this is usually "middle C" for tenors or "low C" for bass singers. Practice moving into chest voice by "sliding" smoothly down a single note. When your register changes are smooth, practice expanding your range by singing short, staccato notes at the upper and lower bounds of your range, before moving into longer tones.

References

• "How to Yodel: Lessons to Tickle Your Tonsils"; Wylie Gustafson & Robert Paul Payne; 2007
• It's an Animated Life; "How to Yodel (Home on the Range)"; Robin Masse; 2010
• Discover a Hobby: Learn to Sing
• "Singing for Dummies"; Pamelia S. Phillips; 2011

Resources

• 134u: Great Yodelling Songs
• Yahoo: The Yodel Studio
• Mudcat Cafe: Teach me to Yodel