Yodeling for Beginners: Teach Yourself to Yodel

Mastering the Basics

Identify the break between the chest and upper registers. Yodeling requires you to switch between your chest register (normal voice) and upper register (falsetto). Where normal voice transitions to falsetto, there will be a break or voiceless gap in your tone. You’ll have to vocally jump back-and-forth across this break when yodeling. Your normal voice will vibrate your chest and have a mellow sound. The break occurs where your normal voice transitions up to breathier, shriller, non-chest vibrating tone, which is your falsetto.

Find your own break. This might sound painful, but it won’t hurt your voice at all. Pick a vowel sound, such as "oh," and move your voice from a low rumble to as high as you can. Try that in reverse now. At some point between your chest voice and falsetto, you’ll hear the break. The point at which your voice breaks will be unique to you. If you're having trouble finding yours, slowly descend from a high-pitched siren-like “Aow” until you feel the tone vibrate in your chest.

Practice alternating between chest voice and falsetto. You might be surprised at how much this works out your vocal chords. Keep relaxed and take frequent breaks, especially if your voice feels tired or overworked. Practice moving from low to high notes, making sure to emphasize the break. Since yodeling alternates between consonants and vowel sounds, you might practice by singing a mid-range note in your chest as "Yoh," then jump up to a high note in falsetto using "Dee." Emphasize the break between chest voice and falsetto when you practice. Unlike other styles, where singers try to move smoothly from one note to the next, the break is essential for yodeling.

Remember and practice the yodeling pattern with a knock-knock joke. Once you get the hang of it, the alternating consonant/vowel pattern of yodeling will come second nature. But until that day comes, you can use the following knock-knock joke when practicing: Knock-knock. Who's there? Little old lady. Little-old-lady-WHO! Practice your yodel by singing "little-old-lady-WHO." Jump from chest voice to falsetto between "lady" and "who."

Attempt a triad yodel. Most styles of yodeling are founded around three notes: the triad. Try singing the notes middle A, E, then D to form a triad yodel. The A should be sung in your chest voice, while the E and D notes should be sung in your head voice. You can listen to a reference to the tones for middle A, E, and D online, on an instrument tuner, a pitch pipe, or on instruments that hold tone well (like a piano). Once you've mastered the triad, try putting the word "yodel" in front of it to sing "yodel - A (Ay) - E (Ee) - D (Dee)!"

Sing triad yodels up and down a scale. Try singing the same "yodel-A-E-D" pattern you did previously for each note on an eight-note scale. Sing your triad on middle C, then move up to middle D. Continue to scale up until you transition to high C, eight notes above where you started. This may be easiest to do with an instrument playing the root note (starting note) of the triad as you sing it.

Warming Up

Breathe deeply to relax tension. You might not realize it, but tension can build up just from breathing. This can lead to tightness that worsens your tone when you sing. Keep your shoulders low and relaxed, take a normal breath, then exhale. Repeat this several times. During this simple exercise, pay attention to your chest, neck, and shoulders. There should be no tension in these parts of your body. You should feel your breathing in the area of your abdomen below your rib cage. This area should expand as you breathe.

Work out mouth and jaw tension with a self-massage. Tension also builds naturally in your jaw and mouth when speaking or singing. Relaxing this will improve your tone. Starting from the top of your jaw and working toward your chin, massage your face with the heels of your hands. Massage your face by kneading the muscles along your jaw and mouth in small circles, pressing gently inward and downward as you move toward your chin. When massaging, your jaw should relax and open as you progress down your face to your chin. This happens naturally when tension leaves your jaw.

Limber up your lips with trills. Yodeling quickly jumps from sound to sound, so it’s a good idea to prepare your lips for these acrobatics. Trill your lips while you exhale so you sound like a horse. This may feel funny, but it’s an effective warmup. Your lips should be placed together loosely as you exhale, causing them to flap together to create noise, somewhat similar to blowing a raspberry or pursing your lips for trumpet. Once you’ve practiced this a few times, try doing this with a “b” at the start. Practice the “b” trill in an ascending eight-note scale, from middle C to high C.

Exercise your upper and lower registers with sirens. This will warm up your upper and lower range, which is important when yodeling. With your mouth in an “o” shape, slide down from the highest pitch possible to the lowest while saying “woo.” Do this several times. You may feel like you have to belt out the volume on the really high or really low notes, but try to keep your volume moderate and consistent. Reverse this process and siren up from your lowest note to the highest. Try this exercise while buzzing your lips like a kazoo.

Round out your warmup with some scales. A two octave (16-note) scale is ideal. This will provide the best stretch for your vocal folds. Try a simple octave (eight-note) scale first, then increase the range little by little until you can do a whole two-octave scale. Try sliding up and down scales with a “me” sound. Next, try doing the same with an “ee” and “oo” sound. Humming scales is another great way of warming up. Avoid pushing your upper and lower vocal range when practicing scales, but do your best to stretch your range a little bit.

Cool down your voice to prevent strain. Especially if you don’t sing regularly, warming up can be a lot of work. Cool off your voice with short, gentle glides that use an “mm” sound. After that, take a short five-minute break. Singing too long without breaks can strain your voice.

Improving Technique

Expect mistakes in the beginning. Don’t feel bad if you sound terrible at first. Learning to yodel well takes time. If you’re self-conscious about yodeling in front of others, yodel when you’re alone at home or in nature. If the acoustics in your bathroom are good, yodel in the shower. You may need to put in many hours of practice before you sound like an authentic Swiss milkmaid (or milklad) instead of a strangled cat. Persevere! When you master this, it’ll sound awesome.

Watch yodeling videos. One of the best ways to improve your yodeling technique by imitating top-notch yodelers. There are loads of great yodeling videos and tutorials you can watch online. For a classical take, check out Julie Andrews' "The Sound of Music." If your heart yearns for alpine yodeling, check out the videos of Franzl Lang. For cowboy yodeling, try Wylie Gustafson or America's Got Talent runner-up, Taylor Ware. For a classic example of yodeling in pop-culture, listen to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by the Tokens.

Listen to yodeling albums. You might be able to get your hands on some yodeling CDs for relatively cheap, but you could also order yodeling albums through online sellers. Listen to the yodeling experts on these albums and sing along to improve.

Turn yodeling into a game to play with your friends. This way you can involve your friends in fun and still get some practice. Teach your friends the basics of yodeling and encourage them to try. It’s as simple as that! Getting the hang of yodeling can be comical; enjoy the laughs that follow.

Join a yodeling group. You may have friends willing to yodel along, or to at least bear with you as you yodel. Search for other local yodelers on Facebook, Meetup.com, MEETin.org, or through a general online keyword search for “yodeling groups near me.” You might find fellow yodelers at a central European cultural center. Yodeling is still a popular traditional activity in countries like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Play an instrument. If you can play an instrument, such as the guitar or piano, you could play along as you yodel. All the better! Singing along with an instrument will help you stay in tune and make your whole performance more impressive. Even a simple instrument, like a harmonica, can interject variety in your yodeling and help you stay in tune.