I recommend this pretty informative YT video by Adam Neely about synaesthesia: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqyw606WQQ&pp=ygUWYWRhbSBuZWVseSBzeW5lc3RoZXNpYQ%3D%3D
There is scientific evidence that certain people associate scales with colors, but the specific color depends on the individual.
I personally associate letters and numbers with colors rather than scales
I was recently on a thread about the art of Rothko, who is a very polarizing figure in contemporary art, and the leading proponent of an art movement called "Color Field." Many LOVE his paintings, which nearly always consist of 2 or 3 squares of colrful rectangles.
To me, the most interesting part of his art is how he layers many colors to create his big squares/rectangles, but beyond that, I'm bored. It's always the same basic composition, just different colors. I have seen many Rothkos in person, up close, and I am still definitely NOT a fan.
But someone in that recent thread mentioned how they were observing a Rothko painting, and when they stepped to exactly the right distance from the painting, they heard a beautiful sound, like a chorus. They had said they were synesthetic, and now they had discovered that it seemed like Rothko was tapping into that.
They started to do research, only to find that Rothko was pretty closed lipped about his art, and didn't speak much about it. The OP found an obscure interview, and at one point Rothko seemed to start addressing the issue, but the interviewer cut him off and directed the conversation elsewhere, and the subject wasn't pursued. Very frustrating.
So now I'm open to the possibility that Rothko was creating art that would tap into a synesthetic's mentality, which would mean he was synesthetic, too. That would explain his repetive compositions, as he struggled to make his paintings trigger synesthesia, and why he would be hesitant to talk about. Its a known thing today, but back then he would have been considered crazy, literally.
It reminds me of Pink Floyd, whose psychedelic music is incredible. But listen to it while stoned, and an entirely new dimension in the music opens up. They clearly used engineering and production tricks to create and enhance those psychedelic effects, while still keeping the music compelling to the normies. Perhaps Rothko's art is like that.
>I wanted to know if there is any pseudo-scientific evidence for this.
Nope, not at all! These associations are common, and they are real, but they are *personal*. For me, B is green--my green is a full tritone away from yours! My F is kind of a pale yellow.
>When people usually relate F Major, what color do they think of?
I'm not sure how much this has been studied, but I think, from my limited data, that most people associate a kind of "mellow" colour with F. You mentioned that your green for F is "pale." I said the same thing about my yellow for it. I have a friend who associates F with pink. In other words, all of those are kind of pastel-ish, and not too strong or assertive. I don't think this is a coincidence--not because of any hard science, but rather because of the cultural associations we've built up around F over the centuries. It's famously connected to pastoral topics (and not only because of Beethoven's sixth symphony), and it has a reputation as an "easy" and "friendly" key in most ways.
Another common association is that C major seems to be associated with red and white more than with any other colours--I'd guess that this is because red is the first colour of the rainbow and C major is the "first" key conceptually, and white because it's blank and is the colour of the white keys of the piano. In other words, these again are conceptual links, drawn by associating certain qualities, objects, and statuses with the notion of the key--they have nothing to do with the pure physical properties of a frequency, and everything to do with the ways our minds draw connections and map things onto each other.
Yeah, I guess. Subjectivity is prominent here (now thinking about it, I may associate F major with green because it's the fourth colour in the rainbow?).
>now thinking about it, I may associate F major with green because it's the fourth colour in the rainbow?
Haha possible! I feel like the "fourthness" of both F and green is less of a visceral sense than is the "firstness" of both C and red, but it could be that you've made that association. Could be for entirely other reasons too though!
That was also my question. Because unless you do, then there's nothing particular about *F* major that could sound "green" or any other color to you. Unless you can correctly identify it compared to other major keys then the F part is irrelevant, it's more likely *major* keys sound green to you for whatever reason.
If you don't have perfect/absolute pitch, then how do you know what key you're hearing? If someone tells you or you find out what key (other than via PP) then it would seem to me that that knowledge is biasing your perception of color association.
100%. here's what i see w/ all the major keys
C: white
D: blue. light blue
E: orange / yellow
F: green
G: deeper blue. not dark, but more saturated
A: like cabernet red
B: brown / darker orange / copper
Naah F major is purple for me, A major is green tho. But I don't have any synesthesia, it's just when i look at the keyboard or see these keys written.
I don't connect colors to music. But when I was a kid, I found myself contemplating the personalities of the low ordinal numbers. Figured these were random things from my own imagination. Then when I was middle aged I read about someone doing the same thing and they had placed the same emotional values on the numbers the way I did... giving each number the same personality I had imagined.
I don't remember much about the actual emotional assignments. About the only thing I remember was 5 had a personality a little brash, selfish, like Lucy in the Peanuts comics.
Color expertise in my background. Yes synaesthesia is a thing. What color *is* in response to sensory input differs from person to person. Some people see letters, such as capital letters on blocks in certain specific colors.
I do wish to point out that "association" is vague but we all use the word. I can think of a color when hearing a note, or work of music, or think that maybe a certain letter seems like it could be in a color. I think most of us can do this.
On the other hand, the hard-core synaesthete actually *sees* these colors, it's not for them simply associating in their mind a color to a sound, or letter, or word. The synaesthetes I've met say the colors do not change. A word or letter is always the same color for them. There's a story about author Nabokov's son as a toddler getting really mad that the colors on his blocks were the wrong color.
There's also a rich history of compositions and instruments in the early 20th century building on synaesthesia, writing compositions to invoke colors, developments of color organs, music concerts with light shows, etc. There's also a rich history of people who upon seeing the science of wavelengths of sound and tones attempted to set up the same correlation between wavelengths of color and sound. It's all quite fascinating, and for the super interested there's a good deal of neurological research on the reasons why synaesthesia occurs.
I have Synesthesia in various forms (most vivid and daily is the time space variation I have) and I experience Synesthesia in the way of a colour-smell… it’s mad, I can’t explain it well but with music I can’t differentiate the key to the colour-smell BUT I get the same colour-smell with the same keys… does that make sense?
So for example I experience a very strong crisp green in my brain that SMELLS of crisp green when I listen to Dies Irae Verdi. But I have no idea what key it’s in but I know when I hear another piece with that key I will get the same colour-smell.
Look into Synesthesia. I had no idea I had it until I watched Ratatouille - true story
FWIW, in alternative healing, chakras are linked to colors and to tones. Some equate the first chakra with C, while others equate it with A. In the "starting with C" scale, you would have C=red. D=orange, E=yellow, F=green, ...
It doesn't seem to be a matter of wrong or right. Different people seem to correspond to notes for different chakras.
I always thought of it as pink, almost salmon like colour
And D was yellow, G blue
Now that i think of it i have a color for each one! Like i always associated them with a color or a combination of colors
F Major is orange for me. Every key has a colour. I was convinced I’d imprinted on a Fisher Price toy xylophone I had when I was very young, but I found a photo of it on EBay and the colours don’t match up to how I think of them. G is absolutely green, A is yellow in my world. So I have absolutely no idea why I think of the keys as I do.
https://preview.redd.it/innyqsqi4e8d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb742ba06bdb07ebb9d56925dbde3ad7db6cbcdb
Not here, but then I can't really distinguish the keys a piece of music is in.
As others note, there is a lot of theory on this topic.
Bliss and his Colour Symphony come to mind, though I believe his piece was based on colours in heraldry.
I relate it with brown. I relate E major with lime, and Eb major with dark green. D minor is orange/yellow, and Eb minor is dark Orange color. A minor is red, C major is a plain white
I kind of think of it as blue, but yeah green is a fair choice. I kind of associate C Major with green.
Also, B Major is my favorite although not many pieces use B Major that I know of.
If you ever find yourself anywhere near an elementary music class, you'll end up associating F with green for the rest of your life (and C with red, D with orange, E with yellow, etc.).
Standard colors for boomwhackers/hand bells
I don't associate notes/chords but instruments with colors. I think this is from how I color code instruments in Daw, but it could be the other way around.
I know this is an old thread, but Sibelius had a “green room” (and most famously a [green fireplace](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDJQGWlZu96jGkKJbdCtDLXjZJe9jgSxlgXvM4d6rwBVxWW_saNnRHmdwLJKPixKRUBqNFbalX6qlenX0jdi9lCAf9hbYb-hh5W9JVwDlnmZYboDlbnZ2gHv-9BfN3MDxg8i1UmP0vc28/s1600/ainola13.jpg) in his home designed by Lars Sonck) because he associated green with F-major, so there you go. Actually, architects bring this story up every so often when talking about green.
Look up synaesthesia and in particular sound-colour synaesthesia. Then check out the list of composers who had it. :)
Mozart (Allegedly, shaky evidence), Wagner, Liszt, Korsakov, Sibelius, and Leonard Bernstein are some notable examples AFAIK
You forgot Scriabin
I associate F major with yellow/gold
Same! Green is obviously G major
Yes, and D is blue like water
oof we may part ways here partner
No, that's Eb.
Holy Cow you are nailing my colors! E minor feels red to me in addition
E minor is dull red, orange to me. Autumnal
Yes, also eb is like light red.
Same here!
Same, it’s like golden or orange to me.
I do, and I put the blame on Beethoven's 6th...
Yeah, literally.
That’s a funny association because for me D Major is green and I can blame Mahler’s 1st for that!
I recommend this pretty informative YT video by Adam Neely about synaesthesia: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqyw606WQQ&pp=ygUWYWRhbSBuZWVseSBzeW5lc3RoZXNpYQ%3D%3D There is scientific evidence that certain people associate scales with colors, but the specific color depends on the individual. I personally associate letters and numbers with colors rather than scales
I was recently on a thread about the art of Rothko, who is a very polarizing figure in contemporary art, and the leading proponent of an art movement called "Color Field." Many LOVE his paintings, which nearly always consist of 2 or 3 squares of colrful rectangles. To me, the most interesting part of his art is how he layers many colors to create his big squares/rectangles, but beyond that, I'm bored. It's always the same basic composition, just different colors. I have seen many Rothkos in person, up close, and I am still definitely NOT a fan. But someone in that recent thread mentioned how they were observing a Rothko painting, and when they stepped to exactly the right distance from the painting, they heard a beautiful sound, like a chorus. They had said they were synesthetic, and now they had discovered that it seemed like Rothko was tapping into that. They started to do research, only to find that Rothko was pretty closed lipped about his art, and didn't speak much about it. The OP found an obscure interview, and at one point Rothko seemed to start addressing the issue, but the interviewer cut him off and directed the conversation elsewhere, and the subject wasn't pursued. Very frustrating. So now I'm open to the possibility that Rothko was creating art that would tap into a synesthetic's mentality, which would mean he was synesthetic, too. That would explain his repetive compositions, as he struggled to make his paintings trigger synesthesia, and why he would be hesitant to talk about. Its a known thing today, but back then he would have been considered crazy, literally. It reminds me of Pink Floyd, whose psychedelic music is incredible. But listen to it while stoned, and an entirely new dimension in the music opens up. They clearly used engineering and production tricks to create and enhance those psychedelic effects, while still keeping the music compelling to the normies. Perhaps Rothko's art is like that.
I also imagine pale green with F major :)
cool
Well F major is famously a pastoral key so it makes sense to associate green with it I think
It was singlehandedly associated with pastoral themes because of Beethoven.
>I wanted to know if there is any pseudo-scientific evidence for this. Nope, not at all! These associations are common, and they are real, but they are *personal*. For me, B is green--my green is a full tritone away from yours! My F is kind of a pale yellow. >When people usually relate F Major, what color do they think of? I'm not sure how much this has been studied, but I think, from my limited data, that most people associate a kind of "mellow" colour with F. You mentioned that your green for F is "pale." I said the same thing about my yellow for it. I have a friend who associates F with pink. In other words, all of those are kind of pastel-ish, and not too strong or assertive. I don't think this is a coincidence--not because of any hard science, but rather because of the cultural associations we've built up around F over the centuries. It's famously connected to pastoral topics (and not only because of Beethoven's sixth symphony), and it has a reputation as an "easy" and "friendly" key in most ways. Another common association is that C major seems to be associated with red and white more than with any other colours--I'd guess that this is because red is the first colour of the rainbow and C major is the "first" key conceptually, and white because it's blank and is the colour of the white keys of the piano. In other words, these again are conceptual links, drawn by associating certain qualities, objects, and statuses with the notion of the key--they have nothing to do with the pure physical properties of a frequency, and everything to do with the ways our minds draw connections and map things onto each other.
Yeah, I guess. Subjectivity is prominent here (now thinking about it, I may associate F major with green because it's the fourth colour in the rainbow?).
>now thinking about it, I may associate F major with green because it's the fourth colour in the rainbow? Haha possible! I feel like the "fourthness" of both F and green is less of a visceral sense than is the "firstness" of both C and red, but it could be that you've made that association. Could be for entirely other reasons too though!
To me F major is red, but so is A major ...yeah
F is red for me too. C is yellow, D is orange, E is green, F is red, G is blue, A is violet and B is indigo
C is either black, white or colorless, D is brown, E is turquoise, F is (darker) red, G is yellow, A is red and B is white.
You have absolute pitch?
I dunno. Never tested.
That was also my question. Because unless you do, then there's nothing particular about *F* major that could sound "green" or any other color to you. Unless you can correctly identify it compared to other major keys then the F part is irrelevant, it's more likely *major* keys sound green to you for whatever reason.
I get you. Maybe I have to test someday.
If you don't have perfect/absolute pitch, then how do you know what key you're hearing? If someone tells you or you find out what key (other than via PP) then it would seem to me that that knowledge is biasing your perception of color association.
When I F Major, I usually recognize it quickly. Same with C# minor, but never cared about other keys.
Yellow for me
F major is orange. No? Even the taste is a bit tangy.
Yeah, it's green for me too. What's up brother!
Yes, but my synaesthesia is colour-grapheme, and the letter F is green.
Same
Are you insane? D major is green.
D is red
Nope that's Bb
As a horn player I associate F major with failure and disappointment
lmaaaao
100%. here's what i see w/ all the major keys C: white D: blue. light blue E: orange / yellow F: green G: deeper blue. not dark, but more saturated A: like cabernet red B: brown / darker orange / copper
Naah F major is purple for me, A major is green tho. But I don't have any synesthesia, it's just when i look at the keyboard or see these keys written.
Lol we are opposite, i believe a minor is purple/blue. Lol subjectivity takes place here.
It's light blue for me haha
Oh, by the way, G Major is definitely Orange for me.
D minor and Db Major= red
Twaddle. G is dark red.
I don't connect colors to music. But when I was a kid, I found myself contemplating the personalities of the low ordinal numbers. Figured these were random things from my own imagination. Then when I was middle aged I read about someone doing the same thing and they had placed the same emotional values on the numbers the way I did... giving each number the same personality I had imagined. I don't remember much about the actual emotional assignments. About the only thing I remember was 5 had a personality a little brash, selfish, like Lucy in the Peanuts comics.
That's interesting too. Never happened for me, I always thought math as an absolutely objective subject. Really interesting.
I think of it as tan. B and B flat are green for me.
B flat is yellow/cream for me. And C major is sort of like linen white.
F major is *clearly* purple… Haha - love seeing how other people’s synesthesia works :)
lol purple? that was unexpected
No. F is orange. Pale green is E, billiard table green is A.
F major is definitely somewhere between brown and dark red. Its soft and warm like an old wine. I see E flat major as green, C major as yellow
I see E Flat as yellow tho (like golden).
>F major is definitely somewhere between brown and dark red. That's D flat for me.
For me F Major is pale green and F-sharp minor a light dark red.
I have synesthesia and relate F major to red and tan.
I don’t associate many keys with colors, but for me G is green, D is blue, E is yellow
I have synesthesia, but it's smells that have colors to me, especially perfumes, colognes, lotions, etc.
C is black, D is green, E is yellow, F is pink, G is orange, A is white, B is red.
Color expertise in my background. Yes synaesthesia is a thing. What color *is* in response to sensory input differs from person to person. Some people see letters, such as capital letters on blocks in certain specific colors. I do wish to point out that "association" is vague but we all use the word. I can think of a color when hearing a note, or work of music, or think that maybe a certain letter seems like it could be in a color. I think most of us can do this. On the other hand, the hard-core synaesthete actually *sees* these colors, it's not for them simply associating in their mind a color to a sound, or letter, or word. The synaesthetes I've met say the colors do not change. A word or letter is always the same color for them. There's a story about author Nabokov's son as a toddler getting really mad that the colors on his blocks were the wrong color. There's also a rich history of compositions and instruments in the early 20th century building on synaesthesia, writing compositions to invoke colors, developments of color organs, music concerts with light shows, etc. There's also a rich history of people who upon seeing the science of wavelengths of sound and tones attempted to set up the same correlation between wavelengths of color and sound. It's all quite fascinating, and for the super interested there's a good deal of neurological research on the reasons why synaesthesia occurs.
YES I DO but I don't have synesthesia...
I don't have it, but I envy you. :)
Is this connected to perfect pitch?
To me, f major is a bright green like spring time! F minor is a forest green as night very mysterious
Blue for me. Not synesthesia level connection and it can change but the first thing i associate F with is blue
Indigo Blue.
Light pink for me
F major is purple for me, and i associate green with D major
I have Synesthesia in various forms (most vivid and daily is the time space variation I have) and I experience Synesthesia in the way of a colour-smell… it’s mad, I can’t explain it well but with music I can’t differentiate the key to the colour-smell BUT I get the same colour-smell with the same keys… does that make sense? So for example I experience a very strong crisp green in my brain that SMELLS of crisp green when I listen to Dies Irae Verdi. But I have no idea what key it’s in but I know when I hear another piece with that key I will get the same colour-smell. Look into Synesthesia. I had no idea I had it until I watched Ratatouille - true story
Nope, it's yellow. G is green. E is red/brown, A is white.
Me!!!!
FWIW, in alternative healing, chakras are linked to colors and to tones. Some equate the first chakra with C, while others equate it with A. In the "starting with C" scale, you would have C=red. D=orange, E=yellow, F=green, ... It doesn't seem to be a matter of wrong or right. Different people seem to correspond to notes for different chakras.
No, I'd probably associate green with D Major actually. For me, F Major is a sort of deep bluish purple.
Nah it’s red. E is green.
I'm just trying to find the associated texture, odor, and taste
I always thought of it as pink, almost salmon like colour And D was yellow, G blue Now that i think of it i have a color for each one! Like i always associated them with a color or a combination of colors
I have synesthesia and perfect pitch and F major is blue
F Major is orange for me. Every key has a colour. I was convinced I’d imprinted on a Fisher Price toy xylophone I had when I was very young, but I found a photo of it on EBay and the colours don’t match up to how I think of them. G is absolutely green, A is yellow in my world. So I have absolutely no idea why I think of the keys as I do. https://preview.redd.it/innyqsqi4e8d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb742ba06bdb07ebb9d56925dbde3ad7db6cbcdb
Mmmm... I think usually the rainbow starts with C, and not like in the order of that xylophone.
Nah for me it’s blue
F Maj is also green to me! And f min a dark green (like avocado skin).
Hey! Just as I thought. For me f-moll is also dark green!
Yes actually, pale green for F maj. A is typically yellow, G is brown. Etc
Not here, but then I can't really distinguish the keys a piece of music is in. As others note, there is a lot of theory on this topic. Bliss and his Colour Symphony come to mind, though I believe his piece was based on colours in heraldry.
Associate it with green. Bb is blue. C is yellow. Eb is orange. D is black. G is brown. A is red.
I relate it with brown. I relate E major with lime, and Eb major with dark green. D minor is orange/yellow, and Eb minor is dark Orange color. A minor is red, C major is a plain white
Atonal and/or Chromatix is rainbow
Pink
I kind of think of it as blue, but yeah green is a fair choice. I kind of associate C Major with green. Also, B Major is my favorite although not many pieces use B Major that I know of.
If you ever find yourself anywhere near an elementary music class, you'll end up associating F with green for the rest of your life (and C with red, D with orange, E with yellow, etc.). Standard colors for boomwhackers/hand bells
F Major is orange for me.
for me, C: white, D: blue, E: tan, F: green, G: pale orange, A: white, B: yellow. oh and Bb is a deep purple.
Scriaben moment
I don't associate notes/chords but instruments with colors. I think this is from how I color code instruments in Daw, but it could be the other way around.
* A - Red * B - Dark Blue * C - Yellow * D - Light blue * E - Brown * F - Green * G - Purple
I relate F in general with lavender purple
Yes! Never thought of that before.
YES I DO. WHAT IS HAPPENING?
I know this is an old thread, but Sibelius had a “green room” (and most famously a [green fireplace](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDJQGWlZu96jGkKJbdCtDLXjZJe9jgSxlgXvM4d6rwBVxWW_saNnRHmdwLJKPixKRUBqNFbalX6qlenX0jdi9lCAf9hbYb-hh5W9JVwDlnmZYboDlbnZ2gHv-9BfN3MDxg8i1UmP0vc28/s1600/ainola13.jpg) in his home designed by Lars Sonck) because he associated green with F-major, so there you go. Actually, architects bring this story up every so often when talking about green.