Which Colors Correspond With Which Notes???

[Passinwind]

If you had one fretted bass....with one low e string and only 12 frets.....could you give me a suggestion then? Assuming we tune A to 440hz? PLEASE! Lolololol.... I know you know something! You know something about everything else you must be hiding something lolol

My answer came to me when I woke up fairly early, a bit before dawn. A single string exercise is pretty standard fare in learning stringed instruments. So I would start with Eb as sunrise and open E would be my target note, sunset. For starters work down through the Cycle Of Fifths, with each successive note being the primary complement on a color wheel. The octave E would the dawn chorus: all the notes, white. Since I don't actually experience any of this, I'm just making up something that I can relate to.

 

[lermgalieu]

I think this exercise is only useful as a means of technical guidance or artistic expression, and therefore submit that there is no answer, just make something up that pleases you.

 

[3bc]

So far it seems like E should be Violet and F should start the spectrum again At Red.

If you don’t care, don’t post. If you don’t think it matters, you’re right! Read and comment on something else. Lol thanks

Any other input is appreciated

But........

I’ve been dying to associate the right Colour with the right Notes. I want to take one guitar and one bass.... sticker each fret with the notes and colour of the note....

Every source I’ve researched has a different opinion...

spectrum of light waves do roughly correspond with the frequencies of sound waves ....

I’m hoping some of you have thought about this as well or are interested enough to do some searching...

I think you could also shade those colours up and down per octave.

I’d like enough reasoning to definitively decide on the right colours for the right notes.

There’s info all over the world....I found technical information associated with numbers and spirtual information associated with the senses.

What do you think?

I’d like to do this with a higher end fretlight guitar. Lights in the fretboard light up to show chords but more importantly all the relevant notes in any scale you can think of. Would be an amazing upgrade for the fretlight concept to have the notes coloured.

Is this Billy Corgan?

 

[5StringBlues]

flatted fifths are blue.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

Just don’t play anything in the brown spectrum witha sub-octave pedal

 

[Ekulati]

So here’s the deal: Believe it or not, the idea of the middle A on a piano vibrating at 440 cycles-per-second is fairly new. It is not some sort of “cosmic, from the spheres” absolute, that was in the Beginning, Is now and ever shall be...oops, sorry.

Anyway, it was only agreed upon as a standard in Western culture (only) c. 1930 or so. Before that, in Western culture, the exact frequency of A --and ALL musical pitches -- fluctuated. So that being the case, tell me then...before we all agreed that A = 440, hmm...what where the colors for the specific notes then? Was say, red, maybe not QUITE red? Maybe a pink?

And what about non-Western cultures, in which the pitch “A” may STILL to this day not be the same as our beloved 440Hz? What colors do, e.g. folks living in the Mongolian highlands or other indigenous lands see when they hear a certain note?

And what were the colors, say, 400-500 years ago, when pitch in Western music was literally all OVER the place? Were the standardized color/pitch relationships somehow different for those folks?

Please, tell me what frequency corresponded with chartreuse before A-440 became the standard. I really need to know.

 

[klharper]

Obviously it’s going to be different to everyone. And you can’t look too technically for empirical evidence.

What you have to realize about visible light is that our spectrum of what we see is extremely narrow. 400-700nm range is less than “an octave”.

Imagine only being able to hear the fundamentals of C4-C5 on a piano (and none of the associated overtones). This is where the literal analogy to perceptible visible light falls apart.

 

[Quinn Roberts]

So here’s the deal: Believe it or not, the idea of the middle A on a piano vibrating at 440 cycles-per-second is fairly new. It is not some sort of “cosmic, from the spheres” absolute, that was in the Beginning, Is now and ever shall be...oops, sorry.

Anyway, it was only agreed upon as a standard in Western culture (only) c. 1930 or so. Before that, in Western culture, the exact frequency of A --and ALL musical pitches -- fluctuated. So that being the case, tell me then...before we all agreed that A = 440, hmm...what where the colors for the specific notes then? Was say, red, maybe not QUITE red? Maybe a pink?

And what about non-Western cultures, in which the pitch “A” may STILL to this day not be the same as our beloved 440Hz? What colors do, e.g. folks living in the Mongolian highlands or other indigenous lands see when they hear a certain note?

And what were the colors, say, 400-500 years ago, when pitch in Western music was literally all OVER the place? Were the standardized color/pitch relationships somehow different for those folks?

Please, tell me what frequency corresponded with chartreuse before A-440 became the standard. I really need to know.

The frequencies wouldn't change, only the notes that have been labeled to them. So chartreuse would be the same frequency yesterday, as it is today, and will be tomorrow; if you're down with all the mumbo-jumbo to begin with that is. I agree most with the guy who listened to PIOUHGD on page one.

 

[TNCreature]

Although I find this concept peripherally interesting, I'd rather just go play my bass.
Have fun!

 

[Liam Wald]

Back in my Haight Ashbury days of the late 60's early 70's I was in a band called The Daily Planet.
Quite often at band practice we would drop acid and turn off all the lights while playing music. The only lights being the pilot lights on the amps. The room was full of colors but I never thought of them as being assigned to specific notes.

 

[Wasnex]

So here’s the deal: Believe it or not, the idea of the middle A on a piano vibrating at 440 cycles-per-second is fairly new. It is not some sort of “cosmic, from the spheres” absolute, that was in the Beginning, Is now and ever shall be...oops, sorry.

Anyway, it was only agreed upon as a standard in Western culture (only) c. 1930 or so. Before that, in Western culture, the exact frequency of A --and ALL musical pitches -- fluctuated. So that being the case, tell me then...before we all agreed that A = 440, hmm...what where the colors for the specific notes then? Was say, red, maybe not QUITE red? Maybe a pink?

And what about non-Western cultures, in which the pitch “A” may STILL to this day not be the same as our beloved 440Hz? What colors do, e.g. folks living in the Mongolian highlands or other indigenous lands see when they hear a certain note?

And what were the colors, say, 400-500 years ago, when pitch in Western music was literally all OVER the place? Were the standardized color/pitch relationships somehow different for those folks?

Please, tell me what frequency corresponded with chartreuse before A-440 became the standard. I really need to know.

This begs the question. With people who have chromesthesia, are the note/color associations tied to frequency or note names. Since chromesthesia is tied to perfect pitch, I would guess primarily to frequency and sometimes both. In creating something artificial it could be tied to one or the other.

Nothing would stop a composer from creating multiple pitch/color association themes or using one theme for an entire life's work. As I have stated multiple times, I don't think there is any inherent natural or physics related basis for establishing a fixed pitch/color association construct. But that does not diminish the artistic potential of the concept. Some people will think it's great art and some will think it's ridiculous.

I agree the lack of a universal pitch standard could complicate matters somewhat, but it doesn't have to. It would not be to difficult to establish a strict tone/color association based strictly on frequency relationships. If a note is out of tune or warbles a little, the color could shift or shimmer with the pitch variation. Likewise if the theme is based on note names, the colors could just snap to the nearest pitch when blue notes or touch are used, and the tuning standard need not have anything to do with it.

Colors could also be tied to frequency bands. Consider that above a certain frequency range, music is not particularly tonal. Think about cymbals for example. So maybe above a certain frequency, a different theme would come into play where light textures are associated with a frequency band or the spectral balance of a sound. I don't have chromesthesia, but I would tend to think of a cymbal crash as a bright near white light that diminishes with the sound. Of course white is all colors, but perhaps different cymbals could have a different hue to represent their spectral balance.

Most people really enjoy a concert with a good light show. Take a performance that integrates a dynamic light show with music and break it into it's components. The music by itself would probably be very good, and the light show by itself would probably have some interesting moments. Together they could be phenomenal and, in my experience, people tend to really remember punchy well timed lighting effects. Seems there are opportunities here to use pitch/color association themes. Maybe it would not even be important to inform the audience that a pitch/color association theme is being used...but it could probably be leveraged to increase audience interest at some types of events. It might even be possible to cultivate somewhat of a cult following using the concept...you never really know what sort of crazy thing you can pull off.

 

[tubedude]

It's hardly opinion, the different shades are from specific frequency ranges:

View attachment 3264730

What's that in Angstroms?

 

[GilbouFR]

Purple does not exist in nature. It's a color you will not find in any rainbow.
It does not exist.
Having "purple" as part of the visible spectrum is scientifically false.

Because your brain sees it's a mix a two colors, your brain creates a unique tint you perceive, but that tint does not itself exist in the real world as such (it does at a specific light frequency but light frequency and perceived tint are two very different things).



This post is dedicated to you, Prince. You were truly unique in this universe.

 

[B-Mac]

So far it seems like E should be Violet and F should start the spectrum again At Red.

If you don’t care, don’t post. If you don’t think it matters, you’re right! Read and comment on something else. Lol thanks

Any other input is appreciated

But........

I’ve been dying to associate the right Colour with the right Notes. I want to take one guitar and one bass.... sticker each fret with the notes and colour of the note....

Every source I’ve researched has a different opinion...

spectrum of light waves do roughly correspond with the frequencies of sound waves ....

I’m hoping some of you have thought about this as well or are interested enough to do some searching...

I think you could also shade those colours up and down per octave.

I’d like enough reasoning to definitively decide on the right colours for the right notes.

There’s info all over the world....I found technical information associated with numbers and spirtual information associated with the senses.

What do you think?

I’d like to do this with a higher end fretlight guitar. Lights in the fretboard light up to show chords but more importantly all the relevant notes in any scale you can think of. Would be an amazing upgrade for the fretlight concept to have the notes coloured.

Check out close encounters.....

Actually back in the 70's I had these really cool custom made organ lights.

Orange and Red were the high and high mid notes...green and blue were the low mid and low notes in that order.

 

[packhowitzer]

I play mostly brown notes

 

[tubedude]

For those searching for a "scientific" basis for assigning color to pitch, octaves double frequency. So multiply the frequency of the note of interest (440Hz for A) until you reach the teraHertz frequency band to see what color correlates to the lower octave. Everything else is random and specious.

 

[blastoff99]

So here’s the deal: Believe it or not, the idea of the middle A on a piano vibrating at 440 cycles-per-second is fairly new. It is not some sort of “cosmic, from the spheres” absolute, that was in the Beginning, Is now and ever shall be...oops, sorry.

Anyway, it was only agreed upon as a standard in Western culture (only) c. 1930 or so. Before that, in Western culture, the exact frequency of A --and ALL musical pitches -- fluctuated. So that being the case, tell me then...before we all agreed that A = 440, hmm...what where the colors for the specific notes then? Was say, red, maybe not QUITE red? Maybe a pink?

And what about non-Western cultures, in which the pitch “A” may STILL to this day not be the same as our beloved 440Hz? What colors do, e.g. folks living in the Mongolian highlands or other indigenous lands see when they hear a certain note?

And what were the colors, say, 400-500 years ago, when pitch in Western music was literally all OVER the place? Were the standardized color/pitch relationships somehow different for those folks?

Please, tell me what frequency corresponded with chartreuse before A-440 became the standard. I really need to know.

Excellent points. In fact, I have a lovely solid silver flute I'd like to sell, but strangely enough nobody wants it. Pitched to A = 436 or some such.

 

[Ekulati]

With people who have chromesthesia

Right. I am fine with the idea that some people do have chromesthesia. I am just not fine when anyone says, for example, that the note Bb represents, I dunno, "yellow" -- implying that it's the same for all human beings.

So, if it's agreed that the phenomenon varies from human to human, then all these charts with "this frequency equals that color" are nothing but b.s.

But then of course, if it's on the Interwebs, it must be true!

 

[tubedude]

Ekulati said:
So here’s the deal: Believe it or not, the idea of the middle A on a piano vibrating at 440 cycles-per-second is fairly new. It is not some sort of “cosmic, from the spheres” absolute, that was in the Beginning, Is now and ever shall be...oops, sorry.

Actually it was the idea of what pitch , or sound, should be A.
For whatever pitch is selected, it's frequency/wavelength is determined. Every pitch we hear no matter what we call it, it's frequency is the inherent cause of the tone and is unchanging.

 

[Wasnex]

For those searching for a "scientific" basis for assigning color to pitch, octaves double frequency. So multiply the frequency of the note of interest (440Hz for A) until you reach the teraHertz frequency band to see what color correlates to the lower octave. Everything else is random and specious.

That really won't work since the visible light spectrum spans less than one octave. Since eyes and ears don't work the same, why limit the idea in this way?

IMHO, Conceptually you could make a spectrum analyzer that overlays the sound spectrum with the visible light spectrum. This would allow you to graphically display octaves, intervals, and harmonics/overtones encoded with color. Also, you could modulate brightness of the display with the volume of each frequency, so fundamental tones would be brighter than overtones.