Tone or Sound Sound and synesthesia

[Pete Thomas]

I saw a movie today that was a bit frustrating in that synesthesia was mentioned early on but never developed. I find it a fascinating topic but would like to know more especially from anyone experiencing it. I almost said lucky enough to experience but maybe it isn't always perceived as a positive? A bit like those with perfect pitch, I know some people who have it have said it can seem like a bit of a curse.

 

[Tenor Viol]

I don't have this, but someone I know through one of the groups I sometimes play in does have it. They're a bit younger than me and did an MA in art and created a huge canvas depicting a well-known piece of classical music (I can't remember, but I think it was the Mendelssohn violin concerto). The painting depicted how they 'saw' the sounds as the work progressed by using the horizontal axis as a timeline.

For them, they perceive notes as specific colours.

 

[cappers]

The MD of our band has chromesthesia. I haven't discussed it much with him but he said he's had it since he was a kid. He sees specific colours for notes. He said he can't describe it but just senses a colour. Apparently Liszt and Leonard Bernstein had chromesthesia. It can also be induced with psychedelics quite an amazing experience hearing music and seeing colours flowing out of speakers......I am a child of the 60s )

Just a thought......early childhood is when the brain is most plastic. Many youngsters play little xylophones with brightly coloured keys, either at nursery school or home. So it is possible that associating colours with sounds might be a learned association?

 

[Woodpad]

Synesthesia is much broader than notes and colors. A stimulus of any sensory or cognitive experience resulting in an unexpected reaction in any other sensory or cognitive experience is the width of this phenomenon. My son made music in school with a classmate with a musical oriented synesthesia and this classmate was a musical wizard.

I also want to hear more from people with synesthesia, not only the sound oriented.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Synesthesia is much broader than notes and colors. A stimulus of any sensory or cognitive experience resulting in an unexpected reaction in any other sensory or cognitive experience is the width of this phenomenon. My son made music in school with a classmate with a musical oriented synesthesia and this classmate was a musical wizard.

I also want to hear more from people with synesthesia, not only the sound oriented.

Yes, I titiled the thread with sound to differentiate from other forms, however I'm totally happy to discuss it in general.

 

[mizmar]

As input the, often fascinating, Recorderist Sarah Jeffery talks about it here:

View: https://youtu.be/bQGNJzqBVA8

It's quite in-depth, for a first person account.

 

[Vlad]

Blimey, I thought it was going to be a thread about saxophone synthesizers 🙂
I've seen a few Sarah Jeffery videos, I like her & she's does some good stuff, I'll check the above one out later when I've got a mo.

 

[ellinas]

Two people that I know with perfect pitch and some autistic artists I know all have mentioned to me that they perceive music as colors. I find it very very fascinating. Myself since I was a child I listen to music as emotions. If a song doesn't have an emotional story telling and doesn't lead me in a certain emotional state I "reject" it. It's so fascinating how our different minds and souls perceive music.

Also I could never understand why people perform better with instruments that refer to their idols or have a certain shape or colour ( for example electric guitars) it's like the certain variation of instrument it's reviving their thirst to perform since they were kids/beginners.

And last there are some people that have a direct connection with their environment. I've heard numerous top level musicians to be directly inspired by the sounds of nature, even urban noise and feeling that it has to be really tightly connected to their performance.

Music is such a mysterious art. So powerful. Endless... And our human variation makes it so unique and diverse. What one person adores the other person hates it.

And I really envy how some people have some extra "antennas" and feel music in a different way than I do. For example colours. It's so fascinating. And even more fascinating is when they describe your playing with their mysterious spiritual understanding. They can be your teacher. A band member ... Or someone in the audience...

 

[Targa]

When I was debugging computer programs using listings the ‘paths’ would assume different shades of colours.
Tried to explain it to others but they didn’t understand.

 

[skeller047]

When I was debugging computer programs using listings the ‘paths’ would assume different shades of colours.
Tried to explain it to others but they didn’t understand.

Several IDEs now do this for you. I guess someone listened 🙂