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Which Colors Correspond With Which Notes???
- Thread starter Markamb1
- Start date
That's why it is not very practical to communicate about what colour a given tone has.
If you see them, you see them and it might enrich the experience of listening to music.
If you don't, you don't. Nothing wrong with that.
It just doesn't help to debate what colour or shape a given tone has.
I remember starting about the subject with one of our guitarists after a practicing session. Mentioning the colours and shapes he was playing. He looked at me as if I was out of my mind. And said I should see a psychiatrist.
Synesthesia - Wikipedia
"Some synesthetes often report that they were unaware their experiences were unusual until they realized other people did not have them, while others report feeling as if they had been keeping a secret their entire lives."
Chromesthesia - Wikipedia
I now, and forever, will use this to describe the opposite ends of my spectral life...
... fantastica, and craptastic.
No, no.
It's A - Azure, B - Blue, C - Cerulean, D - dark blue, E - Eggshell blue, F - french blue (bleu) G - grey blue.
That's if you are playing the blues, anyway.
Your eyes perceive about one octave of light frequencies - a ratio of about 2 to 1 in either wavelengths or frequency
Your hearing operates over a range of about 1000 to 1 in frequency.
As stated before, the frequency ranges are widely disparate, and the wavelengths are also not even close.
About all you can say starting with the science is the lowest freq light is red, with indigo at tge high end. If you want to correlate colors, I'd start there. I’m not sure what this ultimately buys you, but it’s what you have to work with.
Your hearing operates over a range of about 1000 to 1 in frequency.
As stated before, the frequency ranges are widely disparate, and the wavelengths are also not even close.
About all you can say starting with the science is the lowest freq light is red, with indigo at tge high end. If you want to correlate colors, I'd start there. I’m not sure what this ultimately buys you, but it’s what you have to work with.
Colors at the speed of sound sound brilliant but may, in the end, be impossible to consciously describe. Hard to pin down. They move so fast so often in music and in life, and, as has been noted, will look even more complex on an unlined board or a wind instrument. But what if some of the colors of music have no name or tangible presence at all? What if some have opacity? What if some shimmer or pulse? And there must be so many shifts, so much variance, across the board. What color is white noise?
Color is a wonderful medium through which to imagine and contemplate musical information but essentially secondary, another level of complexity, to sound in the wild. And, as such, perhaps just more to learn, more clutter. Finding the right means with which to describe what we hear, outside of the composed or accidental aural soundscapes themselves, using color representation or written or spoken language, nomenclature and such, will be a hippopotamic, swirling challenge. What's solely down on paper will never be enough. Good teachers will find the words to impart the awarenesses. Musicians will have the music. Definitely a blast, thinking along these lines
Color sits right alongside music as a most majestic means to an exquisitely expressive end. And then there are words, but that's another story.
Color is a wonderful medium through which to imagine and contemplate musical information but essentially secondary, another level of complexity, to sound in the wild. And, as such, perhaps just more to learn, more clutter. Finding the right means with which to describe what we hear, outside of the composed or accidental aural soundscapes themselves, using color representation or written or spoken language, nomenclature and such, will be a hippopotamic, swirling challenge. What's solely down on paper will never be enough. Good teachers will find the words to impart the awarenesses. Musicians will have the music. Definitely a blast, thinking along these lines
Color sits right alongside music as a most majestic means to an exquisitely expressive end. And then there are words, but that's another story.
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A mapping between musical notes and colors – nothing to see here
I’ve known two musicians who were capable of synesthesia. Some of their colour/note combinations were similar but not identical. It seems to be highly personal but it definitely is a thing. Both of these guys used to say they could actually see colours when notes were played. Coincidentally, they were both piano players. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. Frankly, I’m jealous. I’d love to have that ability.
I’ve known two musicians who were capable of synesthesia. Some of their colour/note combinations were similar but not identical. It seems to be highly personal but it definitely is a thing. Both of these guys used to say they could actually see colours when notes were played. Coincidentally, they were both piano players. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. Frankly, I’m jealous. I’d love to have that ability.
One principle that has been tried is to take the bass frequency i.e. 41hz and keep doubling it until you get into the light frequency range then see what corresponds.
You, my friend, have take Seasonal Affective Disorder to a whole new level.
To complicate the issue even further; primary colours of reflected light, which is what artists work with are red, yellow and blue. When referring to refracted light - what you see from a prism or generated from a computer screen, they are red, green and blue.
Rainbows are never completely distinctly seperated colours though. You alway see very subtle gradiation from one recognised colour to the next. By that I mean from blue to violet is never a hard edged line but a smooth transition of a myriad shades.
This seems to me to relate to Passinwind’s discomfort with the fretted instrument as a reference. The frets narrow the concept into neat and easily defined distinctions of semi-tones whereas the fretless has the same subtlety as the rainbow. The actual sound frequencies and light frequencies of the universe are not so nice and neatly arranged for human perception.
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+1. Individual. No way to attach specific frequencies that are the same for everyone. Sorry.
A1 is 55hz. A4 is 440 hz. If you continue doubling, "A44" is ~484Thz, which is in the orance part of the color spectrum.
