oldbaritone Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Synesthia, which among other things, is the ability to hear/see sounds as colors. There is some pretty good research on it. Some people can, apparently, see colors when they hear a sound, taste a food... Perhaps this is a latent ability in all people since it seems familiar to the effect of some hallucinagenic drugs. In any case, are there are synesthetes in the drum corps community? Anyone out there who sees colors when a corps plays? Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GenBrigsBari Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Synesthia, which among other things, is the ability to hear/see sounds as colors. There is some pretty good research on it. Some people can, apparently, see colors when they hear a sound, taste a food...Perhaps this is a latent ability in all people since it seems familiar to the effect of some hallucinagenic drugs. In any case, are there are synesthetes in the drum corps community? Anyone out there who sees colors when a corps plays? Dave WOW!! this is pretty weird that you bring that on the table... I don't see colors when a corps is playing but... when I play, I concentrate on my sound and imagine that the sound going out of my bell have a color. I see this color. I use that as a projection technique... When I play a solo by example, my goal is to fill the stadium with that color... I even use that technique when I teach, and it seem to work!! When people take it seriously... obviously... :) By the way... I do not use hallucinagenic drugs!! <**> Thanks, now I know that we call it synesthia and not crazyness!!! lolll Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skylinersop16 Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 I don't see actual color as much as I see shades of light. For example, Fast paced major keyed songs present a very bright blue or white feeling in my mind while sad ballads (aka Pavane for a Dead Princess - Inspires 2002) and minor keyed slow songs present a dark almost black image for me. It's kinda neat. I thought everyone did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbaritone Posted October 11, 2005 Author Share Posted October 11, 2005 WOW!! this is pretty weird that you bring that on the table... I don't see colors when a corps is playing but... when I play, I concentrate on my sound and imagine that the sound going out of my bell have a color. I see this color. I use that as a projection technique... When I play a solo by example, my goal is to fill the stadium with that color... I even use that technique when I teach, and it seem to work!! When people take it seriously... obviously... :) By the way... I do not use hallucinagenic drugs!! <**> Thanks, now I know that we call it synesthia and not crazyness!!! lolll Wow, your reply is interesting. Google synesthia and there's a lot of research on it. I, by the way, do not have any ability to see colors in sound. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbaritone Posted October 11, 2005 Author Share Posted October 11, 2005 I don't see actual color as much as I see shades of light. For example, Fast paced major keyed songs present a very bright blue or white feeling in my mind while sad ballads (aka Pavane for a Dead Princess - Inspires 2002) and minor keyed slow songs present a dark almost black image for me. It's kinda neat. I thought everyone did it. Everyone can't do it. But for people who can its just normal, and they tend to think everyone does it. In the past, when people have tried to explain this ability to those who can't they tended to called crazy so they just shut up about it. Regards Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thekelinator Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 There's a book I picked up recently called A Brief Tour Of human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers by V.S. Ramachandran... It discusses the theories on why synesthetes see things the way they do. It was really interesting to read that while most see numbers in color, the number/color link always constant, when shown Roman numerals V and VI vs. Arabic numerals 5 and 6, all of the subjects knew that the numbers were 5 and 6, but did not see color. Neat little book, it also goes over what the possible physiological or biological causes there may be for synesthesia and a few other psychological anomalies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Matczak Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Synesthia, which among other things, is the ability to hear/see sounds as colors. There is some pretty good research on it. Some people can, apparently, see colors when they hear a sound, taste a food...Perhaps this is a latent ability in all people since it seems familiar to the effect of some hallucinagenic drugs. In any case, are there are synesthetes in the drum corps community? Anyone out there who sees colors when a corps plays? Dave "Blast" did an entire segment of one of their stage productions based on this concept,.............however, IMO, not very well done,...................accenting the moods with an anouncer saying,........."Red",.............."Blue",.................etc,................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hrothgar15 Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 I am a synesthete. I'll reiterate my post from the hornline volume topic to articulate how it effects my drum corps experience: With drum corps, I don't want to hear the sound. I want to FEEL the sound. The corps whose music I can FEEL for an entire 11 minutes are the corps I end up liking the best. I also have a mild form of audio-visual synesthesia such that any sound I hear, I also see right in front of me. The corps I can remember like Crown and Cadets that have consistently had the loudest, fullest, most glorious sounds paint such a beautiful picture in front of my eyes with lush, vibrant colors, fluid, broad shapes and beautiful textures. With the corps that hold back a bit more, it's as if the painting is dull and blurry. When it comes down to it, I very highly value volume production in a hornline and appreciate when a corps can blow me back into my seat and completely envelop me with music, simply because I love that sound so much, I want the most of it I can possibly hear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neholgate Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 (edited) Being that my major was in neurology and I perform neurodiagnostic tests, subject matters like this always fascinated me. On rare occasion I'd test patients who'd describe such sensations. A good book on the subject matter that I read in the 90's was "The Man Who Tasted Shapes" The Man Who Tasted Shapes Directly related to your question is a book by Oliver Sacks, whom I loved ever since he wrote "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat". In the book Musicophilia, he tells a tale about a patient that hears or "sees" music differently than most of us. Here's a link Oliver Sacks Nancy Edited June 28, 2008 by neholgate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cartographer Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 Directly related to your question is a book by Oliver Sacks, whom I loved ever since he wrote "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat". In this book he tells a tale about a patient that hears or "sees" music differently than most of us. I read that book a couple years ago! I want to read it again now and also the other book the author wrote. This is a fascinating topic, oldbaritone... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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