VOCAL DEXTERITY: ANYBODY CAN DO IT
WILKESBORO
When an Internet startup needed a voice to call attention to its name, they called on a singer living in Los Angeles, who was known as the guy for yodeling.
He gave them a three-note yodel: Ya-hoo-oo!
That's Wylie Gustafson, the voice of the Yahoo! yodeler.
"The moral of the story is learn how to yodel and it may take you places," he told a crowd of yodelers-in-training at a MerleFest workshop yesterday. "For me, it bought me my Yahoo! dome."
That's what he calls the equestrian center at his Montana home.
Gary Baum, of Roswell, Ga., sat on the front row of the yodeling workshop and took detailed notes.
"Last night I was singing "Cowboy's Lament," and my friends told me I should come to this workshop," Baum told Gustafson during a question-and-answer session, drawing good-natured laughter from the other yodelers.
Gustafson demonstrated some smooth singing in a clear baritone, along with high-pitched sweet-sounding yodels.
"Yo-di-o-de-lay-ee,
"The cattle are prowling, the coyotes are howling…
"Hey-di-yo-de-o-e-hay-de-e."
The crowd was enthusiastic in its applause.
"It brings joy to my heart to hear that kind of applause for yodeling, folks," Gustafson said.
He said his father yodeled when he was happiest, like when riding a horse.
Roy Rogers was a famous yodeler.
But it's not just cowboys. Actor Johnny Weissmuller, who drew on his German-Austrian heritage, incorporated the art into his Tarzan yell. The boppy song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," includes yodeling.
Gustafson says that anybody who can talk can yodel.
He explained a yodel as a voice break that shifts the sound from a singer's natural voice, which he called a chest voice, to a falsetto, or head voice.
"My definition of good yodeling is finding that good transition between your chest voice and your head voice," he said.
The crowd practiced singing "A" in a natural voice. Then "E" in a falsetto. "All you gotta do is stick the word ‘yodel' in front of that," he told them. "Put ‘T' at the end."
They tried it: "Yodel-A-E-T."
"You're yodeling, yeah!" he said.
He showed them how to spice it up, but warned that the best place to practice is in a car with the windows rolled up.
"It helped me a lot," said Baum, whose friends may be impressed. "I bet I could do better tonight."
mmitchell@wsjournal.com
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