Worth Doing Well

I just recently learned to yodel. First, I started with the simple short yodel that I practiced for long time. I learned from mom who helps me yodel too. She showed me a video by a yodeler named Beth Williams. Then I learned a piece called, “Cattle Call.” It was short too, but it was fun.

After I mastered those, Mom got me a yodeling song called, “Teach Me How to Yodel.” I sing that and play the simple chords with my ukulele. I can clog a little bit, and I have been trying to clog and yodel. These things are very hard and just don’t come to you so very fast.

I like to yodel a lot in our fields, or in the woods, and on one of our hay bales. One time I could hear my echo in the woods. It sounded wonderful when the sound wave bounced back to my ear. The earliest record of yodeling is in 1545. That is so incredible. Yodeling was used to call to cow herds. But more importantly, it was used to communicate from village to village and mountain to mountain in the central regions of Switzerland.

Sometimes I like to add a yodel in a song to make it sound different, but it takes me a day or two to fit the yodel in. I enjoy yodeling and I will never forget how to do it. It is a skill I want to keep for a long, long time.

This was just the beginning of my learning to yodel. I intend to get really good at it. It will take a lot of practice for me to get as good as I want to. Everything worth doing is worth doing well.

~Unique