Aural Effects
does this ever happen to anyone...you have a popular often used chord so ingrained in your head from repeated playing in a tune, such as a d minor 7, that even with different bas ses it is still in your brain so strongly it keeps its original key? well, i raise my hand.
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i mean, the song is over! but in the next piece the chord "haunts" you!
the old key won't go away. not right away at least.
that happens to me for days on end sometimes, but it doesn't get in the way, instead it's like a shadowy perfect pitch thing going on. i can think of "summertime" that i played in d minor at a solo gig on saturday and sing a d without any problem because i'm hearing it as i played it...
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by Scot Ranney on 06/27/2005, 15:59
i know what you mean, pretty interesting. so i wonder what those lucky folks with perfect pitch experience exactly, because some may have whatever degree of relative pitch like us (not mastered, at least not by me). there probably exists varying degrees & kinds of perfect pitch, not only the ultimate kind where every note in a chord precisely "screams" its name, you know? also the kind of "perfect pitch" where certain chords are locked in memory, as aforementioned. i myself if tested with single notes, slowly, one-at-a-time can with pretty good accuracy tell the note. i started out being tested with black notes only (just 5, & you can test yourself with closed eyes), & then just white notes (7, ditto). then the with help chromatic test. but i also often "cheat" with my voice as i know my range, but better than nothing! every not has its own character, & there are only 12.
how come we have no trouble telling numerous colors apart?
how come we have no trouble telling numerous colors apart?
we have no trouble telling colors apart because we are told and educated as children what the colors are. there is no such training with musical notes.
wouldn't that be great to be had as little school kids! but also sight is the most important sense. distinguishing pitch is more subtle. however light & sound both are only waves.
here's a short excerpt from my book...
here's a listening pleasure "device" that's just something else; have you ever wondered why sometimes you see jazz pianists sort of shaking their heads while they're playing? i may be wrong but i stumbled upon this idea & tried it out, especially useful & enjoyable on those really spicy dominant five chords; simply shake your head & listen to that wonderful stereo vibrato! use discretion because this can lead to headaches! i guess it shakes your brain about! however, believe it or not just try it & you'll be really amazed & pleased. a free sound effect with variable speeds, accelerations, & decelerations! unfortunately the audience can't hear it but at least you can enjoy it & have your fun.
here's a listening pleasure "device" that's just something else; have you ever wondered why sometimes you see jazz pianists sort of shaking their heads while they're playing? i may be wrong but i stumbled upon this idea & tried it out, especially useful & enjoyable on those really spicy dominant five chords; simply shake your head & listen to that wonderful stereo vibrato! use discretion because this can lead to headaches! i guess it shakes your brain about! however, believe it or not just try it & you'll be really amazed & pleased. a free sound effect with variable speeds, accelerations, & decelerations! unfortunately the audience can't hear it but at least you can enjoy it & have your fun.
i see different pitches as colours as well. so db major is light blue, and db minor is more dull with i hint of greeny purple. 'all blues' is dark red (anything with b's in it gets darker) 'milestones' is red also but a bit shiny.
wierd eh?
wierd eh?
it's just a mental image thing, right? also you're listing chords & pieces. erroll garner actually did see colors, he had snythesia(sp?) in which he could see sounds, or so they say.
with me i have an unusual happening. it generally appears, but not so often, just sparsely, usually just when i play classical music, in which i see little points of light, in different colors, that just seem to appear, but they're not related to the notes. they sort of remind me of the stars that can be seen after one sneezes hard or whatever. but it could just be one point. once, (this was years ago) a little group of pinkish light points appeared at a certain place in the music, i wondered, "hey, what was that?" and backed up a few measures & when i got back to that measure, again they appeared! i've wondered that maybe it's because i may be holding my breath or unknowingly breathing somehow with the phrases or emotions, but strangely as aforementioned it basically manifests itself only when i play classical pieces.
with me i have an unusual happening. it generally appears, but not so often, just sparsely, usually just when i play classical music, in which i see little points of light, in different colors, that just seem to appear, but they're not related to the notes. they sort of remind me of the stars that can be seen after one sneezes hard or whatever. but it could just be one point. once, (this was years ago) a little group of pinkish light points appeared at a certain place in the music, i wondered, "hey, what was that?" and backed up a few measures & when i got back to that measure, again they appeared! i've wondered that maybe it's because i may be holding my breath or unknowingly breathing somehow with the phrases or emotions, but strangely as aforementioned it basically manifests itself only when i play classical pieces.
yeah synesthesia's the thing. it doesn't work as vividly the other way round, for me anyway. i don't hear the colours very clearly, but i can definately see the aminor aeolian scale. (that's why milestones goes beige/dull orange with a few shiny spots during the bridge :) ) it makes me wonder what 'bright lime green' sounds like because i never see that colour when i'm playing....
but it does make recognising/transcribing voicings easier for me because i can just see the different colours. "so what" played in fmin would sound almost like a different piece. it should be dark blue not bright yellow..
but it does make recognising/transcribing voicings easier for me because i can just see the different colours. "so what" played in fmin would sound almost like a different piece. it should be dark blue not bright yellow..
jb - i associate pitches with colors just like you do; the funny thing is the colors i see are totally different!
i guess it shows the "color-assigning" process for beginning musicians is arbitrary. when we were kids learning the notes on the keyboard, our minds subconsciously attached colors to them, probably to help lock the pitches in our memory.
just for fun, these are the colors i "see" when i play/hear the pitches:
c=white, d=red, e=purple, f=green, g=light orange, a=blue, b=dark yellow.
just as you said, the sharp and flats are darker/lighter shades; however, a question arises: is an a# the same color as bb, an enharmonic note?
in my mind they actually represent different colors! if i consider the pitch to be a a# for whatever reason, i'll see it as dark blue; if i consider it as bb then it's light yellow. cool eh?
i guess it shows the "color-assigning" process for beginning musicians is arbitrary. when we were kids learning the notes on the keyboard, our minds subconsciously attached colors to them, probably to help lock the pitches in our memory.
just for fun, these are the colors i "see" when i play/hear the pitches:
c=white, d=red, e=purple, f=green, g=light orange, a=blue, b=dark yellow.
just as you said, the sharp and flats are darker/lighter shades; however, a question arises: is an a# the same color as bb, an enharmonic note?
in my mind they actually represent different colors! if i consider the pitch to be a a# for whatever reason, i'll see it as dark blue; if i consider it as bb then it's light yellow. cool eh?
here's an interesting link on synaesthesia
https://www.nature.com/news/2005/050228/full/050228-9.html
https://www.nature.com/news/2005/050228/full/050228-9.html
yes! all blues is dark red!
whoa. amazing.
here are my colors vaguely
c - blue-black
c# - black
db - light tan
d - yellow
eb - blue-green
e - green
f - grayish purple
f# - brown yellow
g - red-orange
ab - dark gold
a - ?
bb - dark blue
b - light blue
cool. i once tried to learn all the notes on the guitar fretboard by using these colors - pasting a square of color over each one. it sort of worked.
whoa. amazing.
here are my colors vaguely
c - blue-black
c# - black
db - light tan
d - yellow
eb - blue-green
e - green
f - grayish purple
f# - brown yellow
g - red-orange
ab - dark gold
a - ?
bb - dark blue
b - light blue
cool. i once tried to learn all the notes on the guitar fretboard by using these colors - pasting a square of color over each one. it sort of worked.
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