Yo- der – le –ee-deeeeeeeeeee!

Yo de – le –ee-deeeeeeeeeee!

Yo de - lo –oo -dooooooooo!

If you hear weird shrieking vocal-sound like this at New World Park tonight …don’t be alarmed….. It’s just my son, Charleskey the passionate photographer cum blogger singing two of his favorite country western yodels on occasion of the ‘ Fete de la Musique’ there!

Fête de la Musique in Penang

Date: Saturday, 28 June 2008
Time: 10am-11pm
Venue: New World Park & Khoo Kongsi

The Music Fest, brought to you annually by Alliance Française of Penang is a whole day affair and the Charles is slotted “to spoil your appetite’ at around

7.00pm -7.30pm! (part of the new government’s program to help you loose weight ma! good leh?)

Yes…beside photography and blogging, Charles also has special interest in ‘yodeling’...a very challenging weird style of singing he started to pick up during his preparation for his PMR exams as a stress reliever some 3 years back. (just hope our neighbors share this same interest…which I doubt they do. In fact they should be having hearing problems by now and no longer can whisper-gossip anymore… hehehe!)

If you are blur on what yodeling is …

It’s kinda of voice–break falsetto singing…( going from chest voice to falsetto and back repeatingly) very much like what chimpanzees do when they chase one another in the zoo! (Now that explains why Tarzan makes such noise as he swings from tree to tree…he’s communicating in yodels and NOT because ants got into his loin cloth!)

Yodeling originated in the Austrian Alps as communications between next-door neighbors (that’s what people do without mobile phones…raise your voice and yell at one another la!) It was originally called "Juchizn," an array of short yells which had different meanings, probably like "your cooking sucks!" or "is my hubby there?"

Like what’s happening to the present day hand-phones, yodeling turned out to be so much fun that it quickly turned into an art form and it expanded into the Swiss and Bavarian Alps…and later became a part of country and western music of the cowboys.

Note: for those of you who would like to try out yodeling like what Charles is doing tonite, here’s my advice-

1) Make sure you have very solid sound-proofed windows and

2) If not, be prepared to leave your home quietly through the back door for the next 2 weeks or, wait for some other tragedies (like earthquake or flood) to happen in your neighborhood before you dare to step out through your front door again..whatever comes first...hehehe!