I am not a complete yodel anorak but love this vocal style.  The Yodel is a vocal technique where you move from singing a note to different pitch sung in  falsetto quality, where the vocal folds stiffen …… I will stop with the science bit, and move onto a  Brief History

( from Wiki)

In Alpine folk music, yodeling was used in the Central Alps as a method of communication between alpine mountaineers or between alpine villages, with this non-musical multi-pitched “yelling” later becoming part of the region’s traditional lore and musical expression.In Persian classical music, singers frequently use tahrir, a yodelling technique that oscillates on close by tones. In Georgian tradition. music yodelling takes the form of krimanchuli technique, and is used as a top part in three/four part polyphonyIn Central Africa the Pygmy singers use yodels within their elaborate polyphonic singing, and the Shona people of Zimbabwe sometimes yodel while playing the mbira. Yodeling is often used in American bluegrass and country music.

I also found a blog dedicated to yodelling which is a real treat! Madamoiselle Montana’s yodelling blog  yodelling blog

Check out one of the true yodel  stars of times gone by…

and a new generation …

and some amazing yodelling from The Baka people. My beautiful friend Su Hart who visits the rain forests in Camaroon near the Congo border and plays music and loves  the Baka and raises funds to help them.. Her band -Baka Beyond was founded by her husband Martin Cradick (co-founder of Outback) in 1990 after their 3 month visit to Cameroon . There they began a lifelong musical friendship with a group of Baka Pygmy hunter-gatherers deep in the rain forest check out their website and gorgeous music which is a cross of  Celtic and African.