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A Plus course · 16 lessons

Find the flip.

Herders called across valleys with a voice that flips, and the flip is already in yours. Find it, make it on purpose, keep it clean and light, then take it up the trail into Home on the Range and Red River Valley.

  • 16 lessons, five minutes or less each
  • About 30 minutes in all
  • No reading music

Try the first lesson free See the trail

Trailhead

By the end of the trail, you can

  1. Find where your voice flips, and flip on purpose.

  2. Hear a clean flip from a slide.

  3. Switch vowels at the flip, and land the way down lightly.

  4. Yodel in rhythm, and roll several flips on one breath.

Two voices

Two voices, and the flip between them

Your voice has two sounds. Chest voice is low and speaking-like; head voice is high, light and hooty. A yodel jumps between them, and the jump is the flip.

The app hears the jump in pitch, not which voice made it: you learn to hear that part yourself.

Flip A flip jumps straight from one note to the other.
Slide A slide passes through every note in between.

Mountain rules

Light, never loud

A good flip is a light flick, never a hard catch or a crack. The valley carries the sound, so you never need to push.

  • Medium volume, all the way up.
  • Land every downward flip lightly, at speaking volume.
  • About five minutes of flips at a time, then a rest.
  • Voices that are still breaking should wait before yodeling.

The trail

Four stages, from a first flip to a fast roll

4 units, 16 lessons

  1. Stage 1Unit 1

    Find the flip

    Find your flip, hear your two voices, and tell a flip from a slide.

    1. Find the flip Free
    2. Two voices
    3. Flip or slide?
    4. The hook in time

  2. Stage 2Unit 2

    The vowel switch

    An open vowel below and a narrow one above, a light way down, and bigger leaps.

    1. Open below, narrow above
    2. The way down
    3. Sixths, octaves, fifths
    4. Call across the valley

  3. Stage 3Unit 3

    Yodel in rhythm

    Yodels that fit the chord, a cowboy lope, and Home on the Range.

    1. On the chord
    2. A cowboy lope
    3. Which one fits?
    4. Home on the Range

  4. Stage 4Unit 4

    Faster

    Several flips on one breath, at three speeds, then Red River Valley.

    1. The roll
    2. Slow to quicker
    3. Clean or smeared?
    4. Red River Valley, yodeled

First steps

Find your flip

Somewhere quiet, at a medium volume. Stop if anything tightens or tickles.

  1. Start here. Say "ho" in your speaking voice. That's your chest voice.

  2. Now hoot like an owl, high and light: "hoo". That's your head voice.

  3. On a quiet "oo", slide slowly from low to high like a siren, then back down. Do it three times.

  4. Somewhere in the middle your voice jumps. That's your flip. Go only as high as feels easy, and keep the top light, never louder.

Lesson 1 draws your siren as you sing, marks where your voice flipped, then has you make the flip on purpose.

What the app listens for

It finds where your voice flips, then hears how cleanly you jump across it, up and down, and each note's pitch. Whether the top sounded lighter is yours to hear.

Up to 3 stars, half for clean flips and half for the notes on pitch, plus XP; in lesson 1 a nearly clean flip counts.The same take says it plainly, like "6 of 8 flips clean, up and down", with no stars or XP.

Find the flip: your siren drawn over the ribbon, the jumps marked, and a note that your voice flipped around E4. Find the flip: your siren drawn over the ribbon, the jumps marked, and a note that your voice flipped around E4.
Flip or slide, a listening round: two clips to play, and the question of which one flipped. Flip or slide, a listening round: two clips to play, and the question of which one flipped.

Postcards

From the valleys

Your pack

Packed and ready

Who it's for

  • Singers whose voice cracks on high notes and who'd like to make that flip on purpose.
  • Fans of folk, country and cowboy songs who want the yodel tag.
  • Anyone curious, with a voice that has finished breaking.

What you need

  • A quiet spot where you can sing at a medium volume.
  • A few minutes at a time: the lessons are short on purpose.
  • No reading music: you learn every yodel by ear, from a guide.

The songs

  • Home on the Range Traditional, 1870s, public domain
  • Red River Valley Traditional, 1890s, public domain
  • The yodel refrains Written for the course

Before you set off

Questions

How long does it take?

16 lessons of five minutes or less, about 30 minutes in all. One or two a day is plenty: flips tire a voice.

Is it safe for my voice?

Yes, sung lightly: medium volume, a gentle landing on the way down, and a rest after five minutes. Voices still breaking should wait. It isn't a voice teacher.

Do I need to read music?

No. You hear each yodel from a guide and see its notes as shapes.

What if I can't find my flip?

It's already in your voice. Lesson 1 finds it with a slow, quiet siren. Pushing makes it harder to find.

What does it cost?

Lesson 1 is free, with no account needed. The rest is part of Plus; saving your progress takes a free account.

The summit

Call across the valley

Lesson 1 takes five minutes: a slow siren, your flip found and marked, then made on purpose.

No account needed to try it. Saving your progress takes a free account.

Try the first lesson free See Plus

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