I have never understood what music teachers mean when they say things like this. I’m not a professional musician by any means, but in the before-times I was usually in 1-3 choirs at my university. One of the conductors would describe sounds as “round” or “purple” and then everyone would nod as if they agreed...but I was always utterly lost. I swear they’re making it up, but maybe I’m even less of a synesthete than the average non-synesthete.
I also think there’s some degree of consistency. If I was forced to imagine a “purple” sound I would probably imagine something medium-loud, orchestral, and “full;” something regal, because that’s what I associate with the color purple. But simply played a music sample and asked what “color” it is, and I would probably be making things up. Synesthesia is usually thought of as an unintentional or automatic association. People can often come up with colors to associate with letters when asked, but for non-synesthetes it’s more of an intellectual exercise than a particular fact about a letter.
I have never understood what music teachers mean when they say things like this.
Maybe you will find my definitions, which relate to the physical properties of the sound, helpful.
As for your two other terms, those are harder to define. “Round” I would have trouble understanding too… but I think in the context of a choir, it might mean a note sung by holding your mouth in a round ‘O’ shape rather than by stretching it vertically or horizontally. The shape of your mouth changes the overtones, even when you’re singing the same note.
As for “purple”, even though I was able to define all the other terms, I have no idea what that should mean such that every choir member would nod at hearing it. The only physical connection I can imagine is that violet is the highest-frequency spectrum of light… yet I doubt that “purple” would simply describe high-pitched sounds. Either the other students were just pretending to understand the term, or this is my own limitation.
I’m trying to find out which associations are or aren’t universal.
Do you associate higher pitched sounds with paler colours and feel them more in your extremities?
Do you associate lower pitched sounds with darker colours and feel them more in your core?
When you look at a visually cluttered scene, does your inner speech get louder in order to compete for your attention? If not, how would you make sense of the metaphor ‘a loud shirt’?
Would you be more likely to associate thickly textured music with the sensation of being under a duvet than thinly textured music?
Do you automatically associate some sounds with roughness and some sounds with smoothness?
When people talk about something having a ‘clear sound’, do you imagine it being translucent?
When you hear a very loud and discordant chord, is the pain localised to a particular part of your body depending on the pitch and timbre of the note, do you experience pain that is not really localised anywhere, or is it not painful at all?
I have never understood what music teachers mean when they say things like this. I’m not a professional musician by any means, but in the before-times I was usually in 1-3 choirs at my university. One of the conductors would describe sounds as “round” or “purple” and then everyone would nod as if they agreed...but I was always utterly lost. I swear they’re making it up, but maybe I’m even less of a synesthete than the average non-synesthete.
I also think there’s some degree of consistency. If I was forced to imagine a “purple” sound I would probably imagine something medium-loud, orchestral, and “full;” something regal, because that’s what I associate with the color purple. But simply played a music sample and asked what “color” it is, and I would probably be making things up. Synesthesia is usually thought of as an unintentional or automatic association. People can often come up with colors to associate with letters when asked, but for non-synesthetes it’s more of an intellectual exercise than a particular fact about a letter.
Maybe you will find my definitions, which relate to the physical properties of the sound, helpful.
As for your two other terms, those are harder to define. “Round” I would have trouble understanding too… but I think in the context of a choir, it might mean a note sung by holding your mouth in a round ‘O’ shape rather than by stretching it vertically or horizontally. The shape of your mouth changes the overtones, even when you’re singing the same note.
As for “purple”, even though I was able to define all the other terms, I have no idea what that should mean such that every choir member would nod at hearing it. The only physical connection I can imagine is that violet is the highest-frequency spectrum of light… yet I doubt that “purple” would simply describe high-pitched sounds. Either the other students were just pretending to understand the term, or this is my own limitation.
I’m trying to find out which associations are or aren’t universal.
Do you associate higher pitched sounds with paler colours and feel them more in your extremities? Do you associate lower pitched sounds with darker colours and feel them more in your core?
When you look at a visually cluttered scene, does your inner speech get louder in order to compete for your attention? If not, how would you make sense of the metaphor ‘a loud shirt’?
Would you be more likely to associate thickly textured music with the sensation of being under a duvet than thinly textured music?
Do you automatically associate some sounds with roughness and some sounds with smoothness?
When people talk about something having a ‘clear sound’, do you imagine it being translucent?
When you hear a very loud and discordant chord, is the pain localised to a particular part of your body depending on the pitch and timbre of the note, do you experience pain that is not really localised anywhere, or is it not painful at all?