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Collin571

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How often do you use curbing?  Is curbing important in your singing?

I think curbing is part of engaging twang and having a good mixed voice.  It takes more effort then overdrive or belting in my opinion even though those things require more energy or exertion.  It seems that curbing requires more clinching and better control as well as steadfast commitment.

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I love curbing and the sound color it produces.

If you are going for the sounds of some of these guys, (examples) Toto, Boston, Foreigner, Michael Bolton, Paul Carrack, Richard Marx, Loverboy, Kansas, Steve Perry, Darryl Hall = vocalists who employ curbing.  First, you have to know right from the onset it will take you a good while to get used to it.  Your support plays a big role in managing your exhalation on the curbing throat shapes.  

In the beginning the voice will feel like there's a lid or a ceiling and you will feel a blocked sensation like your voice is being held down or restrained.  If you want a big, rich sound in curbing more times than not you will managing greater levels of air pressure.

You can use it on any notes in your range, and can move in and out of it at any time.  You can also have infinite sound colors using it.

2 hours ago, Collin571 said:

It takes more effort then overdrive or belting

No, I wouldn't say that. It depends on what you are singing and how you wish to sound.

 

2 hours ago, Collin571 said:

 It seems that curbing requires more clinching and better control as well as steadfast commitment.

Yes. This way of singing can be very challenging.  You have to get used to the restrained sensation.

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Well, all great singers reply curbing and edging and all resonance/sound colors available. It is not like you make a stylistic choice for your entire career and say, "I'm going to be a curbing singer". It doesn't work like that. Again, all singers sing with all the vocal modes. It would fundamentally be impossible not to. The point to keep in mind and study is to understand what curbing and edging actually means and then use that knowledge to give yourself more understanding and capabilities as an artist when you sing.

TVS students learn all about curbing and edging and neutral vowels when they study the TVS Acoustic Modes in my training program. 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Collin571 said:

How often do you use curbing?  Is curbing important in your singing?

I think curbing is part of engaging twang and having a good mixed voice.  It takes more effort then overdrive or belting in my opinion even though those things require more energy or exertion.  It seems that curbing requires more clinching and better control as well as steadfast commitment.

Of course curbing is important to your singing. If you don't curb sometimes  when you sing, your not singing. Its like saying, is a beverage important when your eating. The question makes no sense because you don't have a choice.

You do twang when you sing curbing vowels and resonance, but actually, when you sing edging vowels and resonate, you twang even harder. So as far as vocal fold compression is concerned, (twang), curbing is NOT going to give you more twang, edging does. 

I do not agree that curbing takes more effort then CVI overdrive or belting. In fact, it takes less. The vowels that represent curbing are easier and more "lazy" then the edging vowels and resonance. Thus, curbing is actually a more passive and lazy configuration then edging, making it easier. This is why when we train at TVS, it is advised that 80% of your training be edging vowels, not curbing vowels because you want to actually get a better workout.

No singing vowel or resonance requires any more commitment then the other. They all require equal commitment. 

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wow, I just read the wiki page for CVT, which has definitions for curbing, edge, overdrive etc. It just gets so ridiculous IMO.

I have determined that I will solve the JFK assassination AND figure out how the pyramids were built, long before I come to any understanding of singing terms

 

I was going to say that curbing COULD be more demanding in a certain sense if you are thinking along the lines of how a classical singer sounds. If it takes years to develop a decent range with that type of heavily covered sound, then yeah id say its pretty demanding.

 

Other than that, I think one has to be aware of their natural tendencies. Some people naturally talk and sing way back in their throat while some people are way up in the mask area. Me, im a little more naturally curbed to start with. I find myself sometimes heavily curbing a word like "face" without really trying to. Whereas I NEVER accidentally edge something too much lol. I have to be aware and sort of force myself to really edge something or to feel like im using the mask at all. So in a sense it would be silly for me to focus on curbing a lot in my training, since I tend to do it naturally anyway

 

A few months back I occasionally goofed off with this little exercise where I would siren up to a note while heavily curbed, then id hold the note while bringing it forward (edged) all the way, then id siren back down edged. Or vice versa or some other similar variants with or without sirening. You could just hold a note at a fixed pitch and curb it all the way  then gradually edge it all the way forward and vice versa. I think thats a pretty cool way to sort of find where your current boundaries are etc

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On 18.11.2016 at 11:09 PM, Robert Lunte said:

Of course curbing is important to your singing. If you don't curb sometimes  when you sing, your not singing. Its like saying, is a beverage important when your eating. The question makes no sense because you don't have a choice.

You do twang when you sing curbing vowels and resonance, but actually, when you sing edging vowels and resonate, you twang even harder. So as far as vocal fold compression is concerned, (twang), curbing is NOT going to give you more twang, edging does. 

I do not agree that curbing takes more effort then CVI overdrive or belting. In fact, it takes less. The vowels that represent curbing are easier and more "lazy" then the edging vowels and resonance. Thus, curbing is actually a more passive and lazy configuration then edging, making it easier. This is why when we train at TVS, it is advised that 80% of your training be edging vowels, not curbing vowels because you want to actually get a better workout.

No singing vowel or resonance requires any more commitment then the other. They all require equal commitment. 

Very good points, indeed. The thing with Curbing is that you really can sing it 100% "on support" and don't really have to care for the vocal tract setup, which makes it easier compared to other modes imo. If you just sing on support and let the vowels modifiy as they want, you will usually be in Curbing.

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