Hi folks, and welcome to Texas Music Video's unique video, How to Yodel.
My name is Rusty Huddleson. And I'm Tonya Moody. We're here to help you learn to
yodel, or at least to enhance the yodeling, those who may already know how
a little bit. We'll be teaching yodels in a couple of different keys, one for the
female voices and low male voices, and then another key to accommodate the male
voices and high female voices. It's important to know that there's only a
certain area of your voice that's equipped for yodeling. Somewhere in the
upper part of your range is a place called the voice break. For males who
have experienced a voice change, you know all about this subject, but sometimes
it's a bit more difficult for females to locate their voice break. Let me
demonstrate a method for finding your break. Using an E sound, start at the top
of your range and descend until your voice breaks naturally from your upper
or head voice to your lower or chest voice.
That I found my voice break right in that particular area. And I'll just kind
of work around that particular area when I want to practice my yodels. So I want
you to try that and we'll take a little pause and we'll let you practice that so
that you can find your voice break. And we'll be right back.
If you've found your voice break, then you've found the center point of your
yodel. In other words, yodeling will take place by singing notes in your chest
voice below your break and connecting them to notes in your head voice above
your break and vice versa. Let me show you what I mean. Now find your break
again and we're going to start right there in that break.
Sometimes we hear people doing what they think is a yodel, but really it isn't.
Just because you can sing from a low note to a high note and hit the right
pitches doesn't necessarily mean you're yodeling. If the voice doesn't break
between the two notes, then it cannot be considered a yodel. Let me show you the
difference between the two. This is the improper way.
I'm just singing two separate pitches. Even though it is on pitch, there's no
break. Now this is the proper method.
You can hear that there's a break now and that is what is considered a yodel.
Let me take you guys through a similar process now and it may be a little
easier for us to find our voice break by ascending instead of descending like
Tonya showed the gals to do. So get down on the bottom of your range and let's go
with an e sound like a siren and we're going to go up and relax your voice,
allow the break to happen when it comes to that point. Here's how it'll sound.
Now you hear me operating on both sides of my voice break, the low side and the
high side, which is exactly what a yodel is. It's bouncing from chest voice to
head voice and back like this. Now I'm operating over the distance of about an
octave right now, but usually a yodel will take place over the interval of a
fifth or sixth and normally the sixth. That's probably the most prominent yodel
that there is. It would sound something like this. Notice how I connect the two
pitches. I connect them together. There's no gap in between. There's a break in
between, but that's your voice break and that's what we need in order to call
this a yodel. So try this with me a couple of times.
Just continue to push more air. Don't let the tone disconnect at any point, but
continue to push air all the way through the pitches that you do and you'll be
having a good yodel. You know Rusty, they still might be having a little trouble
at this point. Why don't you demonstrate a Cajun yell? That might help them out.
You might be having a little problem and I know everybody out there can do a
Cajun yell and of course we do that on the syllables A-E and you're going to
have to just stand up and let it go because sometimes a Cajun yell gets
pretty loud. It sounds something like this.
Try that a few times and you'll be yodeling.
Now take those same pitches, that same feeling, and try to control it a little more
without the slurs in there like this.
Let's pause right now and let you all practice this a little bit, finding your voice break
and doing some Cajun yells and some controlled yodels and then we'll come back and continue.
Tonya's going to show you gales a basic yodel now that will fit in your range.
We're going to use the vowel sounds A and E. This particular yodel will be done in the key of G
if you've got a guitar or piano and want to play along. By the way, those of you guys out there
who have low voices, you might want to try yodeling along with Tonya on this because
it might just be compatible with your range. You ready to teach them this yodel, Tonya?
Let's do it.
Let's see how it sounds. Here we go.
Let's teach them this yodel now and maybe in real slow motion maybe that's the way to go about it.
Let's slow it down here and we're just going to take it syllable by syllable here. We'll do the
A and the E and we'll start out real slow and then we'll pick it up just a little bit and then
maybe try it a little bit faster. Here we go.
Hey
let's try just a little bit faster. Okay and I want to tell the folks out there that if you don't get
your breath support those little mistakes happen in there where you where you don't get your full
breath support then your breaks aren't there just like I demonstrated a little bit ago.
So let's try it again. I'll try to take good breaths. Get a good breath. Here we go.
Okay
I'll tell you what we might do Tonya. We might give them a little track to play along or to sing
along with here if somebody may not be able to play the guitar or keyboard or may not have
access to one. So that's a good idea. Let's make a let's kind of start slow
and we'll play through it about three or four times and gradually speed it up so they can
start slow about this speed.
So
now Rusty let's take a little break. Is that all right with you? And we'll just let them
pause their tape at this point and practice what we've taught you so far.
Now Rusty is going to show you guys a yodel in the key of G that will complement the one I just
taught the gals. You'll be using the same vowel sounds A and E and you gals with higher voices
are welcome to try this yodel as well. It just might fit your range. Rusty would you like to
demonstrate this? I'm ready. We're going to start off real slow on this one on in the key of G and
actually we start on G. So here we go guys using A and E. We're going to start off real slow on
so here we go guys using A and E.
One more time.
As you notice I about ran out of breath there so why don't we speed it up a little bit. It's a
little easier to sing the faster we go. Here we go a little faster.
One more.
You know the great thing about male and female voices being in different ranges
is that we can combine these two now to make harmony and Tanya and I are going to demonstrate
this now using the yodels we just taught and whether you're male or female choose the yodel
that best fits your range and then see if you can stay with us. We're going to start slow
and then gradually speed it up. You ready Tanya? Here we go about this speed.
One more.
Let's speed it up a little bit.
A little faster.
All right I'd like for you all to practice this right now so
let's turn the tape off and see what you can do with it.
Now that you've had a little practice harmonizing let's do the same yodel again
but this time let's add to the A and the E the word
Odle. It's going to sound like this.
All right.
Our second yodel is a traditional one that found great popularity back in the early days of country
music specifically with a man named Jimmy Rogers who had a whole slew of yodels similar to this one.
He named them the blue yodels and I think this will remind you of those beginning country
yodels. Once again we're going to do this in the key of G and here's Tanya to demonstrate yodel
number two. And this is at full speed.
Let's teach that one now Tanya. Okay now the syllables that you're going to say are
i-d-o-le-i-o-dle-le-i-o-dle-le-i. Sounds like a foreign language doesn't it?
Here we go a little bit slow.
You'll notice that on each one of those the voice break takes place in the word
between le and e and every time it does that that's where the voice breaks so that'll help
help you people learn how to do this particular yodel. This is a very important yodel by the way
in country music. It's used in so many different songs and in the choruses at the end of the songs.
So I'm going to teach first of all a harmony part to what Tanya just did and then we'll sing it
together for you and then I want to I want to transfer this to the key of C
so that those of you who can't sing in this particular range can also learn this
the melody to this yodel. So first of all the harmony part would sound something like this.
Why don't you join with me now and let's do this together about that speed and then
we'll gradually speed it up. Okay. Maybe three or four times.
All right and you know we can also do something else with that yodel if we wanted to swing it.
Let's say if we had a western swing song that we wanted to apply this yodel to.
All we're going to do is just get a swing rhythm going which would be something like this.
Let's transpose this over to C now because it is such an important yodel
and the chords if you're playing along are just going to be one five one which will be C G C
and it'll sound something like this. Now this is the melody. Here we go.
If we were to swing it it'd be like this.
Rusty let's give them a little practice track so they can sing along with it. This will be
in the key of G and we'll do it about four times through. Okay.
Well let's do a practice track in C too. Okay. Four times about the same way. Here we go.
Here's yodel number three.
Boy what a great yodel there and I know this is one that you folks are dying to learn.
I think the way to do this just to slow it down considerably and the words we're going to be using
are over and over again. So let's try it real slow Tonya. Okay. About like this.
I'll tell you what let's speed it up just a little bit and I'm going to go ahead and add
a harmony part to this and those people out there with great ears they can just join right in with
me. It might be good to tell the folks too that it may look like it's harder singing it fast but
it's actually easier because boy trying to get those breaths to stretch out over that space it's
a little bit harder so that'll be a good thing for them to know that it's really not as hard
as it looks going fast. Well let's speed it up just a tiny bit. Okay. About like this.
A little faster.
Well that's a good one. I'll tell you what I know there's some of you that want to learn this yodel
that can't sing it in this particular key so let's transpose it one more time up to the key of C
and I'll run through it a couple times with you in the key of C. Starting out kind of slow
it's going to sound like this a little bit faster.
So
a little bit faster.
Faster.
One more time.
The yodel that Tonya is going to do for you now is a great western yodel.
It works real well in songs like I want to be a cowboy sweetheart or out on the Texas plains and
so many others that is too numerous to mention. So learn this yodel well and see how many songs
you can apply it to. This is going to be in the key of G and make Patsy Montana proud. Okay Tonya
here we go.
One more time.
All right very nice and let's give them a little practice track on this and work along with.
Y'all can back the tape up and listen to all those syllables and write them down and then
jam along with us while we play this practice track. Here we go get us started on this Tonya.
Second time.
Tell you what, let's put that in C for the rest of you folks out there that have a different range,
and I'll do something very similar to what she just did.
Here's your little practice track in the key of C.
This yodel I'm going to do for you right now was taken from one of my heroes of my youth.
One of my favorite all-time cowboys, Roy Rogers, did this style of yodeling.
I think you'll really get a kick out of this. It's a lot of fun.
The syllables are a little bit different. They're E-E-P and that P serves a purpose
to bring the thing to a real sudden halt, and the next syllable is a low ope,
so we also have a P in that syllable for the same purpose.
I think you'll get a kick out of this. It goes like this in the key of C.
You'll also notice there at the end of that yodel when I go
That's the first time that we've used 16th notes instead of eighth notes,
so you have kind of a quick little yodel there.
It's the same blue yodel style that Jimmy Rogers did that we learned earlier.
It's just a little bit different time frame. It sounds like this.
So you might want to isolate that and practice it a little bit.
Also, let's back this up now and take it a couple of bars at a time, real slow,
so you make sure you get all these words. Here we go.
Starting on the F chord in the key of C.
One more time.
Full speed.
This yodel that we're going to do right now is one of my favorites that Tanya has ever done.
It's actually taken out of the middle of a couple of cowboy tunes that we've done in the past
that she yodels really well. I love the syllables on this from Tanya.
Before you even sing this, you might tell them what the syllables are,
so they can be listening to them.
It's I diddle-lay-ee, O diddle-lay-ee, O diddle-lay-ee, E-T-A-T.
We'll do it up to speed and then we'll maybe slow it down a little bit.
Let's do it one more time.
I'm going to teach you to them a little bit slower now, about like that.
Keep singing about that speed and I'm going to harmonize it with you.
Faster.
Boy, isn't that a great yodel.
Boy, that's a fun one.
Alright, well what shall we do next here, Tanya?
Well Rusty, why don't we do that yodel, that really difficult one that you wrote
that's really fun for advanced yodellers.
I know the one you're talking about, the key of G.
It goes something like this.
You want to join with me on it?
Oh, I'd love to.
Alright, why don't you harmonize with me a little bit.
Here we go.
Oh, that's a good one.
We'll let them back the tape up and get the words off this because I don't want to have
to say all these words.
Boy, I tell you.
There's just too many of them.
But I tell you what, we could slow this down just a little bit and maybe try to give everybody
a chance to really learn it.
This is a difficult yodel, very advanced and we go to the flat seven in this so if you're
playing the guitar you want to go down to the F from the G to the F at the end of each
line.
So it sounds something like this.
Boy, they're going to enjoy that one.
Let's pause the tape right now and y'all back that up and I know it's going to take you
a while to learn that one.
Our next yodel is going to be split into two parts and I'm going to teach you each part
in the key of G and then I'm going to turn it over to Rusty and he's going to teach you
each part in the key of C. So here it is in the key of G and I would say this is kind
of an advanced yodel too.
It's a tough one.
It really is.
Here we go.
Let's do that a little bit slower and we'll see if you can sing along to this one.
I want you to break down that last lick there because that's the fastest one in there and
just sing that real slow.
What I'm doing there is I'm just taking different vowel sounds and alternating them between
the A and the I and the E and so forth and if you're ever watching me you'll probably
notice I never do the same thing twice so you will too once you learn all these yodels.
We can back the video up and check it out.
You want to go ahead and do the rest of it now in the key of G also.
Okay.
The second part.
The second part actually starts on the C chord even though it is in the key of G.
So are you ready for it?
This is really fast.
We'll do it fast first and then we'll slow it down.
We'll start with that last lick of that yodel.
Okay.
We'll start with the last part of the last yodel.
Here we go.
All right.
Boy, that's a great yodel.
Do you want to do it again now a little bit slower maybe?
Let's do it a little bit slower.
We'll just start with the T part this time, the second part.
Here we go.
Two, three.
All right.
That's great.
Why don't I do it now in the key of C and hopefully it'll sound something like what
you just did.
I hope my syllables are the same.
Well, with all these versions, they're really getting their money's worth.
Pretty close.
Really close.
It is in the key of C for those of you who need that particular range.
I'll go back and slow it down a little bit now.
See if you can sing along with me.
It starts off with the Cajun yodel, by the way.
Last lick again.
Notice that time I added the I sound in there, so I got all the vowels in there.
The rest of that yodel, the same one, the second part.
See if I can get into it.
One more time.
All right, y'all have fun with that and back the tape up and practice a lot.
One of the greatest examples of Western music, of course, is the waltz.
We would be amiss if we didn't include one in here.
There are some waltzes that you can yodel.
This particular one we're going to do now is sort of a modern-day cowboy song.
It's a beautiful yodel.
Tanya's going to do it for you in the key of G.
The first time through, we'll let her sing it by herself.
I'll join in the second time with some harmony.
Okay.
I think that one's pretty self-explanatory.
You can understand the words real easy and the voice breaks are real easy to be heard.
So just back your tape up and run through there a couple times and practice with it.
And I might add if there's some of you out there, and I'm sure there are,
who have great harmonic ears, then put a third-part harmony in there.
Sing along with me and Tanya because that's a beautiful yodel when you do it either by itself or two-part or three-part.
So have fun with that one.
Here's a practice track for the cowboy waltz.
You ready?
One, two, three.
One more time.
On behalf of Texas Music Video, I want to say thanks to you folks out there who purchased this video.
I know you're going to have a good time with it because Tanya and I had a good time making it.
And it's a very difficult thing to do, I can tell you that.
But if you'll stay with the exercises we gave you, study the tape closely, stop it every once in a while,
write down all those syllables, you're going to have all the tools you need to yodel.
Well, you know, and Rusty, they can take what we have put on this video and they can mix and match the yodels
and create their own and put them in all kinds of songs that they might want to include a yodel on.
Absolutely. Well, let's give them a good time to go out on here, okay?
One, two, three.