Speech is quite a thing. It is the expression of thoughts and feelings by articulating sounds.
Now I’m wondering two things here.
Is singing a part of speech?
And.
Is yodeling a part of singing?
Because when we sing, we are expressing thoughts. Either our own thoughts or someone else’s. But we do it by making musical sounds with the voice, usually with words. And usually with a set tune.
And when I consulted the dictionary on yodeling, it said this:
Yodel. A form of singing or calling marked by rapid alternation between the normal voice and falsetto.
So, unless there is a better argument out there against, I’d say the answers to my questions were “yes” and “yes.”
Because sometimes I yammer. I think, then, that yodeling and yammering must be some sort of cousins. Either a first cousin twice removed, or a second cousin once removed, or somewhere around there.
I bring all of this up because on this date, February 9, 1992, the world’s fastest yodeling record was set. A male yodeler named Thomas Scholl of Germany, set that record by yodeling 22 tones (15 falsetto) in one second.
That’s some fast yodel work.
Do you think Yoda yodels?
Or are there any yodeling yoga groups?
I’m also wondering if eating yogurt makes you a better yodeler.
I thought I might learn to yodel and have a shot at breaking the record. But alas. The Guinness World Record people no longer track the record for the fastest yodel. I’m not sure why they quit, but I read this news on their Twitter account.
Yodels. It is said that the calls may have been endearments that shepherds used to express affection to their herds. Historians also say that the earliest record of a yodel is in 1545. Back then, it was described as “the call of a cowherd” from Appenzell.
Some traveling minstrels were yodeling in the United Kingdom and the United States as early as the eighteen-hundreds. Most music historians state that the first recording of yodeling was by Riley Puckett in 1924.
I don’t know how many people still yodel today. I haven’t heard a single yodeler in years. But then again, I don’t hang out in any of those seedy Yodel Bars.
Yodel Bars.
And if you haven’t noticed, I think at this point, I am yammering.
Oh-di-lay-ee-ay, di-lay-dee-oh, de-lay-ee, oh-di-lay-ee-whoooo.
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“If you’ve got nothing to dance about, find a reason to sing.”
― Melody Carstairs
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“I would like to paint the way a bird sings.”
― Claude Monet
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“The best things in life are silly.”
— Scott Adams
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Fast falsetto. A cousin to the yammer.
