Sunday, December 05, 2021

Preface To Echoes: Yodeling

(Go here to learn to yodel.)

It occurred to me too late in the planning of this week's Self Help Radio, which will have the theme "echoes," that I might have spent a little time featuring the vocal style called "yodeling," which the dictionary defines as "practicing a form of singing or calling marked by rapid alternation between the normal voice & falsetto."

Now, I know nothing about the origin of yodeling & this is something of a guess, but it seems to me that it's somewhat imitative of an echo, & of course you associate it with wide-open spaces, like the Alps or the plains (where cowboys might be singing), places where echoes are natural.  Again, I have done little research - well, absolutely none - so this is all a guess.  But it does mean there'll be no yodeling on the show tomorrow night.  Sorry.  There were lots of echo songs to get through!

It does give me the opportunity to tell my favorite knock knock joke though:

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Little old lady!
Little old lady who?
Say! I didn't know you could yodel!

No comments: