Austrian yodelers take their voices underground, turning a parking garage into the Alps

GRAZ, Austria -- No mountains to practice on? No problem. Yodeling fans in Austria have moved their practice sessions to an underground parking garage, since it produces echoes like those they can get in the landscapes of the Alps.“It’s not too dissimilar to the high mountains," said yodeling teacher Anna Maria Gutschi as she led a group of 30 through an empty parking garage earlier this week. "You have wide hallways; you have walls that reflect a lot.”Gutschi works for the Styrian Volksliedwerk, a cultural organization promoting traditional folk music in the southeastern Austrian city of Graz — which is not in the high mountains, but sits in a flat basin surrounded by hills and low mountain ranges at the edge of the Alps.The group has been holding a series of courses on yodeling in unusual places to keep the tradition alive in modern times. Whether it is an underground car park, a canal or a gas station — as long as the acoustics work, up to 30 people are allowed to join each time for a unique experience.“It’s a form of communication from mountain to mountain — just like that, without the need for a phone," Gutschi said, describing the art of yodeling as she let her voice wander u...