Just wondered if anyone else had seen the results of a large scale poll into musician's associations of colours with a particular key, handedness etc. Results can be found Here

Wow, the difference between C major and C minor is quite shocking

This is very interesting. I associate some keys with colours but I don't have a colour for every key.

For me, C major, C minor, C sharp minor and E major are all yellow. B minor and B flat major are red, A flat and F minor are blue. I don't really have a colour for G sharp minor but it always has a metalic feeling to it for me.

Don't know what all this means but it's a good topic of conversation!

SO interesting. Particularly the fact that, out of the six keys represented in the study, I agree with the majority in five of them (for me, E major is definitely green, as is E minor...).

It would be fascinating to discover what it is that has different people associate different keys with different colours.

There was an interesting TV programme on a few years ago about a small group of people who associate different food with different colours. They are said to 'taste' in colour.

I havn't played enough scales to know or notice these things. I heard on the radio that E major is a concidered a 'green' key, but that's all I know

You can get any senses to 'cross over' - it's called synaesthesia. I have a friend who has colours for days of the week and for numbers. Colours for letters/numbers is one of the most common forms of it.
Wikipedia entry on synaesthesia for your delight!

(sorry, going )

Thats really intereting! I don't really associate colurs to keys, but they do seem to feel different to me. Especially the difference between sharp keys/flat keys!

That's interesting.

C major is red D maj is definately yellow for me, while E maj is green, F is blue (maj or min)

I've just noticed a relationship between my "days of the week" colours too!

Monday is red, Tuesday is Yellow and Wednesday is green.

That's really interesting!! I don't in general associate keys with colours, but I have a sort of chain of association with French/F major/dancer/light/female and German/G or D major/deep/rich/brown-red/male, some of which comes from stereotyping I'm sure, but it confses quite alot of people when I try and tell them!!

Oh wow! I find synaesthesia fascinating, and I did a talk about it at school because I had read a few books about it. However, I don't tend to think of keys as colours . Maybe if I did it would help me remember my scales better!

I have also always found it fascinating.

Which books have you read? I'd love to read more about it. I remember seeing a TV programme about it some years ago, it was fascinating.

Well I reckon F# minor is dark green, and I ought to know !

I cannot for the life of me comprehend how different keys can have different characteristics for as far as I'm concerned everything is relative so every piece could be in the same key and it'd make little difference to me whether they are lighter, darker, thinner, moody etc. etc. For me, that's controlled by the composer and it'd sound more or less the same whichever key it was in, bar the fact that the notes could be as much as an augmented fourth higher/lower than in another key which would then incur timbral differences on the instrument.

Cor blimey - I can't even follow that one

Theres less of a difference with the instruments now, but they used to be tuned so that thirds in c major would be really pure, then getting progressivly less thirdy (If that make sense) the farther out you got.

I know all that, but different keys do sound different even on piano.
When I transpose a hymn tune down a semitone from E to Eb it does have a different character ewven though I know it shouldn't.

I can't help but disagree. I think the only reason it sounds different is because of the beefier lower end or, if transposed up, a more brittle treble register. If played to me on different days and I wasn't aware that they were in different keys, I wouldn't be able to tell.

Different keys sound different especially on the piano. It is the tuning compromises of keyboard instruments that make different keys have different characteristics. Perfectly pitched playing of a melody on, for example, a solo violin sound the same in different keys, as all the relative intervals in the piece will be the same unlike the piano.

...though of course to someone with perfect pitch and/or synaesthesia, even played on a solo violin the keys would sound different.

I think that Ab minor as black, and C# minor being blueish. Well, that's why Chopin used it for that famous Waltz isn't it ?

This is really interesting! I'm synesthetic myself, and do get colours for keys (though in pieces it can be more complicated, as the colours change so often)
I don't agree with the majority in any of those, though - besides, I'd be picky anyway, because I get such particular shades and/or textures with keys, also depending on instrument (for instance, Eb major on a Yamaha grand played in a church is a dusky, velvety purple, as I found last night at a concert).
Any other synesthetes out there? I've only ever met two others...

Our previous minister is a synesthete. He sees words and letters as colours.

Maybe I'm weird, but I've always sort of envied synaesthetes... especially word/colour or sound/colour associations. It just seems like it would be an extra dimension to one's perception of the world.

I imagine synaesthesia for sounds would result in perfect pitch - as the colour/sound link would be constant.

edit

At risk of pointing out the obvious, with such a tiny sample, further subdivided into such a large number of subcategories, any possibility of establishing statistically significant differences between various groups is pretty close to impossible...

I've always thought of c# minor as pretty black. Or close to it. Dark, muddy blue. Buts maybe that just too much chopin waltz and rachmaninov prelude... I love those pieces, they make me feel so evil

Oh! And a flat major is definately yellow. Weird how that instantly springs to mind. But yellow, definately, it's just so happy!

I seem to recall being frustrating the last time this topic came up. If one associates a key aurally with a colour then one should be able to tell what key a piece is in when it is played. However, most people who claim to associate a key with a colour do not posses this skill. Therefore I'd propose that what is actually hapenning is people are associating the name of a key with a colour rather than the key itself: after all they wouldn't be able to tell the colour of a piece of music without being told what key it's in it first....

Sorry , just wondering... you like eating satay then?



Interesting point. I associate keys with certain moods or feelings, i.e. F major - pastoral, A major - happy, D minor - torment etc.

I kinda agree with AnotherPianist, in that I think I just associate keys with colours not based on their intrinsic sound, just the sorts of pieces that I tend to play in said keys (as with C# minor).
I was interested to see that c major was interpreted as white; I can see why - connotations of clean sheets, simplicity etc - but Ive always seen c major more as an opportunity to be really interesting with chromaticism and atonality, so for me its really vibrant and bold. but yet again, this is strongly influenced by the pieces I play...

and yes, I love satay

I've heard that seeing notes as colours is related to perfect pitch, ie people who have perfect pitch see notes as being associated with colours.

Apparently we are all born with this facility and can sustain it if exposed to music in a certain way as young babies, but it's quickly lost if whatever it is that's supposed to happen doesn't happen.

I bought an odd book in a jumble sale when I was a teenager - a big dusty old hardback all about notes and colours. I think the author assumed that everybody saw notes the way he did - I remember he described keys like F# and C# as being pale blue. I thought it all sounded very exotic and exciting!

oops double post...
weird

It sometimes happens. I once posted 5 of the same posts because the computer was so slow.

I'm afraid I don't see notes as colours, even though I do have perfect pitch.

I would guess it's the other way round - that having sound/colour synaesthesia would lead to having perfect pitch, rather than perfect pitch being of necessity linked with synaesthesia.... if you see what I mean...

Someone with it would be able to tap into perfect pitch - because if C is, for example, red, then if you "hear" red, you can learn to recognise that this means C! But I've met many people with perfect pitch and few with synaesthesia - I suspect that many perfect pitchers hear notes as the notes and don't necessarily associate them with colours at all, let alone in the way a synaesthete would. I've heard that babies have perfect pitch, I don't think this means they're all synaesthetes.

I can't remember who I was talking to, but they had synaethesia (can't spell it) and they were telling me how my second name was really interesting in terms of colour. (I think it was blue and white)

I wish I could remember who it was!

Sorry, not about keys, but it sounds really interesting

It's probably really weird of me but I really covet that I just think that would be such an interesting way to see the world... I guess synaesthetes are used to it - but I feel like us "normal" people are missing out... OK, I'm just odd...

I know It would be fascinating!

Before anyone beats me to it, yes I am using "normal" in its loosest possible sense to refer to myself...

For me, although this may be slightly irrevelant as I have perfect pitch as well, the problem with your theory is that the colour of music depends on a vast quantity of things. Thinking of your average piece, you don't just have one key, and it's not just diatonic. You have a massive range of timbres and notes; often many chromaticisms and modulations; the melody varies; the harmony varies. All this changes the colour for me, so often I can't attach one colour to a piece or a section of a piece unless it's all very same-y and doesn't change much. When I say, for instance, that for me C is light purple, what I'm really saying is that for me, on a grand piano in a room with a normal amount of resonance, an in tune middle C played at about mezzoforte is light purple. Vary any one of those characteristics and the shade will instantly change.

I haven't spoken to many other synesthetes, and I therefore don't know whether this is the same for everyone. But even if it's only the same for some people, this would negate your theory.

I find this so fascinating...

Well the books I read were fiction, so I had to base the talk on them, but I used some other info I found in other books (and the internet too). The fiction ones are 'Altered Land' and 'Mondays are Red' (Mondays are Red is more of a teenage fiction though.)




You aren't odd! I've always thought that ever since I found out about synaesthesia! It must be amazing to see the world in an entirely different way to the rest of us. In 'Altered Land' the author wrote about how her friend had synaesthesia and how much she envied her friend for being able to see everything so differently to her. She also said that she believed that many of the best authors must have some traces of synaesthesia as well. All of this is so interesting! Sorry, I think I'm a bit

I don't know, I reckon synaesthesia's pretty on topic when linking colours and music!!

I'll see if I can get those books from the library. It would be interesting to read non fiction about it too.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's cool

No, don't think it's odd at all. it is fascinating -

My OH says I'm wired differently ... I don't find other synaesthetes see the same colours though - and I don't get colours for days of the week.

Oooh didn't know you were a synaesthete, Maggie. What's your favourite colour/sound combination? Yeah I'm nosy!

Not sure I've really got a favourite, Sarah. Gb major / soft creamy yellow is good, kind of pale banana-colour. Bb minor / pale bluey-grey. It's not terribly static; colours shift focus a bit depending on what aspects / chords of a key are most in evidence.

I'm not a synaesthete, clearly, but even to me that "fits"

The distinction Maggie just made there is also an interesting thing to think about

She put Gb major as soft creamy yellow - but I'm willing to bet that she'd put F# major as something quite different (what would you say, Maggie, just out of interest?)

Why do we do that? It's not logical. A Gb sounds exactly the same as an F#. Same for other enharmonics. For instance, my Db is a dark dusky blue, but my C# is a bright reddy colour. There's obviously a very large difference there!

The note that I hear tends to vary depending on my mood, the last thing I listened to, and obviously the context if it's in a piece (but I'm talking more of pure notes).

I think I tend to hear the more common notes - so F# over Gb, but Bb over A#. What do other people do with enharmonics?

She put Gb major as soft creamy yellow - but I'm willing to bet that she'd put F# major as something quite different (what would you say, Maggie, just out of interest?)

Why do we do that? It's not logical. A Gb sounds exactly the same as an F#. Same for other enharmonics. For instance, my Db is a dark dusky blue, but my C# is a bright reddy colour. There's obviously a very large difference there!

yes, absolutely right. I often have very similar thoughts and I have no idea why there should be this difference. The whole feel of the keys is different - something to do with our perception of them I suppose. My F# is more likely to be a bright-ish green.

no, not quite like that ...

I wonder whether someone who was synaesthetic but had no musical training would "see" those notes differently.