Hi all

I have always associated certain keys with certain colours (e.g. A major is pink; D minor is orange etc.) and thought I was the only one who had this strange "hobby". However, a recent discussion led me to understand that several musicians are similarly peculiar. Anyone else out there think certain keys are certain colours? And, if so, are they the same colours as other peoples'...?

(Could be quite a fun topic - nice distraction from the exam I think I've just failed...!)

To me a piece of music is just in a key. No colours or anything are involved!

Yes, same here.

Car Expert

Oh Perhaps I am just strange then...

No you're not strange. I have heard of many others who associate colours with aspects of music. I guess its a knid of variant on perfect pitch.

But off topic here, but I associate certian composers with colours. No idea why, but for me Mozart is blue, Beethoven red, Bach green... wierd or what?!

Apparently lots of people associate keys with colours. Lots of my music teachers do! I reckon...
D flat major is light blue, I think the minor might be too.
D major is pink
D minor might be orange
C major is deep red
E major is yellow
G minor is very dark blue
G major is green
F sharp major is something very weird
I haven't figured them all out yet though...this is so weird!

Hmm, I do have a few colours for keys.
C major is definitely white.
D major is a reddy orange, F major is more of a wood-coloured brown
E major is bluey, G major is turquoisey-green

That's about it. Some synaesthetic people can "see" sounds as colour.

Wow, this is getting exciting! Bohemian, I have often thought that F sharp major is kind of bright yellow/orangey goldy colour. And F sharp minor is similar, just a bit less sparkly... Interesting that you feel G minor is dark blue - I have always felt it's a kind of dark purpley colour - I wonder if that's close enough to count?

Any thoughts on C minor? Personally I think it's very different to C major, whereas some keys, like D and A, are similar colours in maj and min...

What is purple?!

For me, C major is white and C minor is black. I think I agree with C having a bigger difference from major to minor.

Hmm, not sure what purple is. I'm tending towards B flat major, though no idea why.

Yes, I think B flat might be purple - which might account for the bluey purpleness of G minor, being the relative major and all that!

I agree that C minor is blackish. What about C sharp minor? I'd like to think it's dark green though I am less clear about this one...

Ooh I like that key! And I like purple woo!

Hmm, can't go as far as that. I only really identify colours with keys I play often. If it's an X#minor, I wouldn't have played it much, so I wouldn't know.

Oooh, this is just my kind of topic! I not only associate keys and notes with colours, but also days of the week, the letters in the alphabet and numbers! What about you? Apparently it's some way the brain remembers things.
For me...
C major: yellow
D major: light blue
E major: light green
F major: dark blue
G major: grey
A major: dark green
B major: orangy/pink

And to add to the C minor discussion: for me it's a very dark green/almost blackish!

I do this, it's very odd but adds a bit of excitement to my scales!

C minor-indigo/purply colour- my favourite key and my favourite colour.

F# minor-dark green
F major-grass green
F minor- also green!
G major-pink
G minor-magenta
A major-light blue
A minor-white
D minor-black
E major-sky blue
Bb/Db major-orange

Im also a visual learner so revise things by writing and highlighting things in colour, does anyone else find that if they see keys in colours?

Jess

Yes, I am a visual learner too; perhaps this is why I have the instinctive colour thing. My A level English books were very colourful by the time I had finished with them!

It doesn't look like there is much similarity between the colours people associate with keys, which in itself is interesting! I wonder if this could form the basis for a psychological study...?

I wish I could see keys as colours - it seems very exciting!

I wouldn't worry, nicky_flute! Those of use who claim to are probably just very bored and need a way to make our practice more interesting!!

Apparently Beethoven saw B minor as black...

I can see where that's coming from...it's a rubbish key to be fair, bit like C sharp minor, but at least C sharp is interesting whereas B is just...B. Meh. I'm going to compile a complete list this afternoon.
Everyone seems to think E is a lgiht, pastel colour!

no, not at all - I always think of E as a very bright colour

I love B minor! And Eb minor...

B-B-but....Le Onde is written in B minor!!!

Yes, I agree that B minor is black.

C major - something dull and overused.....perhaps white...
D major - a royal color, perhaps red, or blue
E major - ecstatic - a bright colour, maybe blue, or yellow
F major - a bit like C major...
G major - bright and jolly - green...
A major - pale blue
B major - some weird complex colour I haven't thought of yet....and I don't play much in B major

As for the minors...

C minor - passionate and tubulent, deep red
D minor - blue, don't know why...
E minor - not sure..
F minor - a bit 'watery' for lack of a better word... something pale, pale red
G minor - passionate and turbulent again, deep red
A minor - Green
B minor - Black

As for # and b minors....I don't play them much....

I know many people who associate colours with things, but I have yet to meet two people who agree on the same colour for something.

what a strange idea!
laugh out loud!!!

I shall now ask the question I usually ask in these threads (this is usually followed by being booed off ). If one can genuinely see colours from hearing music in a certain key then effectively one must have some form of perfect pitch. That is, supposing you see colours when you hear music in a certain key, if I play a piece of music to you it is possble for you to tell me what key it is in without any reference simply by knowing what colour it sounds. Is this true?

I know some people (Maggie is one of them) can do this; but anyone unable to do this surely doesn't naturally associate the colour with a given key, it's just something artificially added when one is told the key.

Very interesting!!
I can't really answer you first question because I have perfect pitch, so I would tihnk of it either way, but some keys are just so obvious because of the mood they create, and therefore the colour they imply, which is how I think of keys as colours. I think it's because when listening to music, modd is the first thing that hits you, I don't think anyone's first thought is "what key is this in?", but more likely "this piece sounds dark"...if you get me. Before I had perfect pitch I would always always picture C major as deep, royal red and if I could "see" that colour, I assumed it was C major, and I was usually right (sometimes it was G major which to me isn't too disimilar). Maybe that's not normal because it's not how you describe colour/key association, but it's certainly my experience.
By the way, I am not a visual learner at all.

Oooh, I've never tried this before *runs off to see whether it works*! What an exciting concept!

By the way, I'm a visual learner, too!

I know you are all talking about colours but I always think about a major key being warm and minor being cold. Just me?

Not always...that's like the "major key happy, minor key sad" idea...often true but sometimes completely the opposite.

Thats weird.. I never do that with music. Something is either major or minor to me!

But what about other things? Is it just keys and notes that you all see in colours, cos I see months, days of the week, letters in the alphabet and numbers as having colours as well!

Yes that happens to me too. Not that I see the same colour of course - but the "key feel" often kicks in before the pitch accuracy, so it's quite possible to be a fourth or a fifth out initially - until the pitch sense says "hang on a minute ...!

The major / minor thing is interesting too - some minor keys are really bleak and wintry - others are much softer and gentler.

I can usually compare two pieces in my head, to try and figure out the key. Only today, listening to Bach on the radio, I was positive that a piece that they played was in F minor. I was comparing it to the opening of Beethoven's Sonata in F minor, Opus 2, Prestissimo, and its triplet triads at the start....They didn't say the piece name or key after the end, unfortunately.

Not really on topic though...

OK, this is a bit off topic but I found the other day when I was listening to a violin concerto slow movement (can't reamember which one) that if I concentrated I could kind of see the piece being played. Maybe it's because I am a violinist and you can hear the shifts and when you change strings a bit. I was listening to this with my Dad who has perfect pitch (well most of the time unless he's ill) and I said to him at the end of the movement "Is that a B flat" and he said no, he thought it was a C but he went and checked on the piano and it was a B flat. Does anyone else find this with their instruments??

Mozart once described (from what I remember when I heard about it) as E major being bright and sunny therefore yellow, and B minor black and gloomy.

IrisH - LoonY

I think Db or maybe Eb major are purple kind of keys somehow - especially Db which is really rich and mellow - but Eb is very majestic and rich too which suggests purple for royalty.

I agree that it is a majestic key. I've always thought it's an emerald green...

When anyone mentions a key to me, a flash of colour goes through my mind

C major is Grey/White
D major is Orange/Deep Yellow
E major is a very defined Purple
F major is positively Grass Green
G major is Blue-ish (bit uncertain, that one)
A major is a positive Red/Scarlet
B major is Rusty Red/Brown

Db conjures up a burgundy Red
Eb is Royal Blue
Ab similar
Bb is a bright Green

The minor keys follow a similar scheme but variations on the shade.

This could be a form of "photo-synthesis" ???? Note sure if I have the correct term there

Quite possibly. I think a couple of colours I identify with keys may even be colours on the pages of books when I first played them. I've never tried identifying keys just from listening.

I concur with your G major and A major Diapason!

I can tell what notes are if I listen to the clarinet... B (middle line) is a lovely full sounding note, whereas Bb... thin and reedy!

There's a name for this colour association thing, one of my teachers has it. She also has a tuning fork for a brain, her perfect pitch is so accurate! Some people have it with numbers too, where eg 1 is green but 3 is yellow. You dont have to be musical, some non musicval peoiple will listen to a piece and say, "oh this piece makes me think of red!"

Do all you guys who see notes in colour have perfect pitch as well? I've heard people who have genuine (rather than learned) perfect pitch see notes in colour as well, and am wondering if it works the other way too (if you see notes in colour you have perfect pitch as well).



If I hear a violin playing on the radio I can always work out what key it's in because of the sound of the different strings - the way the notes resonate and so forth. I guess it's because of playing so much you get familiar with each sound.

Violinia

Yes, I find this too!

Yeah, not so much between the D and A strings but go up to the E and it really stands out. And the G. I really have to concentrate on it, I can't just hear it when it's on the radio.

Synaethesia I believe, there are several famous musicians who have it as I remember.

...like Skryabin.

I've never really thought of that! It seems like a good idea though!

erm, I might be a bit late to thins, but I find that keys are like the rainbow colours, from C = red, to B = purple. I think this is because when I first got a piano, my mum put these colour stickers on the keys and it's just stuck in my mind