'Visualising' audio when listening. Music's mental effects.

[Mm1066]

Hey guys. I'm slightly intrigued as to whether any of you guys have a similar experience when listening to music as I do. For as long as I can remember, whenever I listen to a song or an album I always visualise the sound to have a certain colour. I know it's odd, but I think it's similar to how some minds work. For example, I read an article a while back on a man who solves complicated math problems by imagining shapes and whatnot. Anyway, when I listen to music I always receive the sound as being visually coloured, always the same colour as the album. I think it may be why I like some tones/mixes more than others. I just can't listen to music without having a visualisation of colour related to it.

 

[ahjteam]

I like my coffee just like my metal. Beige.

 

[Habsburgs]

you're so awesome

 

[Mm1066]

I like my coffee just like my metal. Beige.

Nice ;-)

 

[joelplagues]

If you only view the colour being the same colour as the album this is nothing special, I do it all the time and is not uncommon for people.

if you view different songs with different colours or certain chords or passages change the colour for you then you have what is known as Synesthesia

"Trash Mcsweeny" of Australia's "The Red Paintings" has it in the form of colour as you are describing and I have always found him fascinating because of this. His blog has always been a great read as well as he often describes the things he is working on and how colour interacts with his mind during the process.

 

[Mm1066]

Oh cool. I wasn't expecting to be the only one, just seeing what other people thought of it. I'll check that out sometimes, thanks.

 

[SocialNumb]

You must be 12, and what is this?

 

[Mm1066]

You must be 12, and what is this?

The fuck? I'm 18. If you read what I wrote you'd get it. Sigh, there's always one.

 

[Zozobra]

Not colours. Hypersonic nuclear-powered ninja-piloted fighter jets, with infinite torque. Or angy giants wielding gigantic sledgehammers in urban areas. Possibly angry giants wielding gigantic sledgehammers in urban areas fighting hypersonic nuclear-powered ninja-piloted fighter jets.

That or a fretboard and playing it. Mainly that, actually.

Also, that I wish I could play drums. The associated mental image is me sitting behind a kit hitting a snare, tom, kick and ride simultaniously over and over again.

 

[AllanD]

If you only view the colour being the same colour as the album this is nothing special, I do it all the time and is not uncommon for people.

Lol, I thought I had some sort of special ability at one point in my life, then I just realized it was just this.

 

[MindMunch]

That´s weird. Do blues look blue to you?

Something like this

 

[Mm1066]

:Smokin:

That´s weird. Do blues look blue to you?

Something like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5OLKT-ufsk

The Blues always appears greyish black to me, maybe because it's old and began before colour photographs/videos.

 

[SocialNumb]

Guess you never heard of "I'm 12 and what is this?"

Sigh, there's always one.

 

[Mm1066]

Guess you never heard of "I'm 12 and what is this?"

Sigh, there's always one.

If this is supposed to be some inside forum joke then don't expect me to get it, I haven't been here long!

 

[SocialNumb]

It's just some dumb random (/b/) shit. Nothing personal, it's all good.

Sorry to be so off topic in your thread.

 

[DaveBlack]

i'm sure that the color of the album has an affect on what you visualize so you do have to take that out of the equation but it does mean that you have the ability to correlate music with color.

Synethesia is a little more in depth because I think it has something to do with the physical wiring being crossed so instead of really hearing the music, you're almost full blown seeing colors. Sensory perception.

For me, i've always equated it to being able to imagine how the stage would be lit at a concert if the band was playing that song or what hues or lighting filters would be used in a music video ya know? Probably should have went into lighting instead of audio engineering lol.

And it's not necessarily one color per song. If something's predominantly major I see a mixture of blue, purple and white gradients and if something predominantly minor it's usually a mix of greens and oranges. But it changes from song to song really and a lot of the time, the tone of the singers voice affects the color scheme too.

 

[Mm1066]

I think it's interesting hearing how music appears to other people. I think for me, the album colour might just be coincidental as it's just what I think about as I have to think about the artist, song and then album. I do a lot of transcriptions too, so I also try and visualise the way riffs would be played. I went on holiday about a year ago and didn't have my guitar, so I essentially learnt a whole load of songs just by imaging the fretting in my head. it's a bit annoying tbh as I can't just listen to the music anymore without my mind being preoccupied with these other thoughts. One thing I've always been interested in though is music therapy. Not as a career, just researching it.

 

[kvoid]

I like my coffee just like my metal. Beige.

I like my coffee black. Guess what kinda metal I like

 

[kvoid]

And that Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer is a Synesthetic. I wish I could but I'm fucking red-green colourblind. Some captchas give me hell!