Singing With Tension: Flagler College Professor Shares His Experience to Help Students
By Kelly Magee
Joe Colsant sang all throughout his school years and originally thought he was either a tenor or baritone. But after about four lessons with his voice teacher in 2011, his voice would never be the same.
Colsant worked for years to overcome vocal tension, and now he teaches his students how to do the same. Not just through teaching vocal technique, but by being encouraging and positive towards his students. He teachers voice and music appreciation at Flagler and is also a classically trained bass, conductor, and music director at Our Lady of Good Council in St. Augustine.
After college he went on to teach high school and became a church music director, but while he was working at the church, he knew something wasn’t right. He wanted to continue to study so he found a voice teacher.
His teacher made him sing with his head all the way back, as if he was looking at the ceiling. Colsant wasn’t able to make a sound because all of what he was using to sing was tension.
“My voice dropped very dramatically, like a fifth, in an afternoon. It was like I hit puberty at 35. I had to take the next couple years to relearn how to sing,” Colsant said.
Eventually, he managed to find his voice again and sing using air flow instead of tension. In the process of relearning, he discovered many different kinds of tension such as jaw, lip, tongue, neck, shoulder, back tension and squeezing of the larynx.
“We can have all kinds of tension, so basically it’s a process of unlearning. Unlearning all the tensions we have and using air speed instead of tension to sing,” Colsant said.
Colsant helps his voice students at Flagler to overcome their own tensions by helping them become aware of their tension. He also feels that being aware of tension can help those who are just starting in singing and even in speaking.
“If anybody wanted to take on singing, and most people have the ability to sing, they really do. Like 99 percent of the world can match pitch. But a lot of people don’t have the desire to sing. It also helps in speaking. I often thought about a course for business CEOs and that kind of thing to learn to speak with authority. Using your air and speaking with authority could be a benefit from voice training,” Colsant said.
Music student Kelly Flynn said that she learned a lot of voice technique from Colsant, but she learned a lot from his positivity as well.
“He always encourages singing with passion. It’s not about how good you are, it’s about doing what you love,” Flynn said.
Flynn said that Colsant’s “extreme positivity” can sometimes be overwhelming, but more helpful than only learning technique.
“It doesn’t leave a lot of room for self doubt when you’re in his presence because he’s so encouraging and positive and cares about the growth that you experience,” Flynn said.
“Professor Colsant is a very kind and knowledgeable person with a lot of experience in choral conducting, professional singing,” said Clinton Weinberg, Coordinator and Professor of Applied Instrument Flagler. “He’s very collaborative in nature and just has a great spirit. He’s so encouraging and friendly. It’s really a great joy to be able to work with him.”
Weinberg said that he has heard nothing but incredible feedback from students regarding Colsant and has seen improvement in their performances.
“My favorite part of singing is being fully self expressed,” Colsant said. “Feeling powerful is what really draws me to singing. And by extension, having my students feel powerful too.”