OK I thought I'd be random and put this in! Have fun voting! My personal favourite is the E above middle C. It rocks.

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A, for the simple fact its the note flutes tune to, and therefor the only note I can usually hear as sharp of flat. I also discovered (to my absolute astonishment) that if I think of a certain piece of music that began with an A, I can actually sing it in tune too!!

This is just spam to be honest. Why on earth would anyone have a favourite note?

i voted for G. i love that note!and when i play the chord on the keyboard with strings oooooooh!!!!looove it!

A flat!!!

though I nearly chose ping...

sorry, it only lets you have 10 notes! i would put the sharps and flats in... but thanks for voting ping, it was a kind of neutral solution!

I like D flat as well. Do you think it has to be D flat or C sharp though?

Everyone has a favourite note. Just some people don't realise it.

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QUOTE (pianissimo @ Sep 17 2004, 12:18 AM)

This is just spam to be honest. Why on earth would anyone have a favourite note?

B. It's just so... pure... for some reason.

:S



xx

My favorite note is A because its right in the middle of my range. And yes, people can have favorite notes just like people have fav numbers and so forth. Its not something to be analyzed; just accepted as one of those random things........

i like F sharp, but that wasnt on the list so i voted F.
i like it because its the easiest note to vibrato on lol andcos it can sound happy and sad depending on the key. like A really. i like A, and F sharp.

A flat above middle C has 2 b mine! Yey! Love da chord too! Course dis isn't spam - its brilliant entertainment!
Lol!

I have to say I was very tempted by ping - but in the end G won! Greet poll cheeble !

I voted G, because i love the g string on the violin

QUOTE (Rhapsodin @ Sep 18 2004, 12:15 PM)

Spam? Not so. People have favourite keys, the tonic or which must therefore approach a favourite note. My favourites are Db maj and Ab minor. Uh, spam stands for Sales, Promotion & Advertising Material...so I don't think cheeble's post comes under that...unless she/he is trying to sell notes or custom-built tuning forks!!! Cheeble, could you send me a kilo of organic D-flats please? Ta!

I am indeed trying to sell notes. However, I am not charging for them, all the concerts I play in are free admission. Unfortunately I can't afford to pay travel expenses for anyone who comes to see them!

Organic D flats are on their way. Please allow 28 days for delivery. Contents may settle during transit. Keep away from naked flames and do not exceed the stated dose.

Thanks to everyone who's gone along with my poll!

my favourite notes are all accidentals (cos for some random reason I hear colours for some of them!)
A sharp/B flat is turquoise (very pretty!)
G sharp/ A flat is a nasty kind of acidic green
F sharp/ G flat is bright red etc
random I know! A is also nice- it's a beautiful blue

e flat above middle c is the best note on the saxophone!

£20 since £50 seem ostentatious.

Has to be G flat (not F sharp), it's such a nice smooth creamy note.
(That's texture, not cream in colour !)

Maggie

QUOTE (cheeble @ Sep 21 2004, 04:34 AM)

QUOTE (Rhapsodin @ Sep 18 2004, 12:15 PM) Spam?  Not so.   People have favourite keys, the tonic or which must therefore approach a favourite note.   My favourites are Db maj and Ab minor.   Uh, spam stands for Sales, Promotion & Advertising Material...so I don't think cheeble's post comes under that...unless she/he is trying to sell notes or custom-built tuning forks!!! Cheeble, could you send me a kilo of organic D-flats please?   Ta! I am indeed trying to sell notes. However, I am not charging for them, all the concerts I play in are free admission. Unfortunately I can't afford to pay travel expenses for anyone who comes to see them! Organic D flats are on their way. Please allow 28 days for delivery. Contents may settle during transit. Keep away from naked flames and do not exceed the stated dose. Thanks to everyone who's gone along with my poll!

LOL!! I just tend to call silly, annoying, not just Sales, Promoblablablaetc stuff but now I understand! I voted ping because I don't have a favourite note!

--------------------
~tremolololo~

i agree wth hgirl!

i like A flat becaus its very blue!

i also like D#

i can hear colours in notes as well! isn't that weird... my favourite, E above middle C, is a nice kind of purplish blue. and the B above it is green. mmm.......

hmm... nobody seems to like D double flat very much... i knew putting in enharmonic equivalents was a mistake...

QUOTE

i can hear colours in notes as well! isn't that weird...

Ooh yes, I can "hear" the colours too!! I think that has a name- there was something on here about it a month or so ago, if I'm not mistaken...
Middle C is purple, the next D is orange, the E is lime green...
I think my favourite is Ab below middle C- it's a lovely kind of dark blue colour

QUOTE (Rhapsodin @ Sep 18 2004, 12:15 PM)

Hi, pianissimo, Spam? Not so. People have favourite keys, the tonic or which must therefore approach a favourite note. My favourites are Db maj and Ab minor. Uh, spam stands for Sales, Promotion & Advertising Material...so I don't think cheeble's post comes under that...unless she/he is trying to sell notes or custom-built tuning forks!!! Cheeble, could you send me a kilo of organic D-flats please? Ta!

Spam is a commonly-used term on internet forums to mean an irrelevant, pointless thread/post. Since you're being pedantic, I'll just say that this thread is rather "silly".

I am aware that people have favourite keys (I do myself), but since all notes are relative to the key in which a piece is written (with the exception of atonal music), to say that one's favourite note is the tonic of their favourite key is quite misguided. For example, one of my favourite keys is Bb minor, but that does not mean my favourite note is Bb as if I suddenly heard a Bb played over a B major triad in a Mozart piece then it would sound very out-of-place and wrong.

Hence why I deemed this thread spam.

What on earth is 'ping' when its at home???

I have two favourite notes, E-flat above middle C, which makes my head buzz when I hear it,
and E above the next C-up, which is my best singing note - when I sing it I get the most fantastic sound which I just can't achieve on any other note.

"ping" is the option for people that don't have a favourite note

QUOTE (pianissimo @ Sep 21 2004, 05:51 PM)

Since you're being pedantic, I'll just say that this thread is rather "silly".

Well, I am rather silly. I blame the colony of ants that raised me to the fine potato that I am now.

QUOTE (Sotto Voce @ Sep 19 2004, 12:40 AM)

yes, people can have favorite notes just like people have fav numbers and so forth. Its not something to be analyzed; just accepted as one of those random things........

yaaaay! thank you!

nobody HAS to have a favourite note. it's just a concept - i wanted to find out if anybody else shared my love for a particular note...

if you cant laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?
we've all gotta have a little fun in life..............

Lol!!!

E is a bit more intersting in its major form and Debussy's 1st arabesque is in E and I've got a bit of a fettish for that piece at the moment. E minor is suitably easy and E blues scale is so relaxing to improvise on. Such a good note!!

QUOTE (hornplayer @ Sep 25 2004, 12:37 PM)

if you cant laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? we've all gotta have a little fun in life..............

totally agree with that one!

QUOTE (Jazz man @ Sep 26 2004, 01:34 PM)

E is a bit more intersting in its major form and Debussy's 1st arabesque is in E and I've got a bit of a fettish for that piece at the moment. E minor is suitably easy and E blues scale is so relaxing to improvise on. Such a good note!!

yay! i like E too!

I have a question for all the people who have said that they see certain notes a certain colours: this must mean that you have perfect pitch (or at least the ability to accurately recognise certain notes each time from the colour) yet I'm sure that some of you said you didn't. So can you identify a note correctly every time from because it's a certain colour?

I know that one can have perfect pitch without synesthesia but if you can tell that Eb is yellow then surely you can identify that as an absolute pitch.

Incedentally (for those in the UK) Horizon this week is about synesthesia, it's on BBC 2 on Thursday if anyone is interested.

B flat!!! I like D minor too.... sorry had to add that

QUOTE (AnotherPianist @ Sep 29 2004, 12:37 PM)

I have a question for all the people who have said that they see certain notes a certain colours: this must mean that you have perfect pitch (or at least the ability to accurately recognise certain notes each time from the colour) yet I'm sure that some of you said you didn't. So can you identify a note correctly every time from because it's a certain colour? I know that one can have perfect pitch without synesthesia but if you can tell that Eb is yellow then surely you can identify that as an absolute pitch. Incedentally (for those in the UK) Horizon this week is about synesthesia, it's on BBC 2 on Thursday if anyone is interested.

I think they were just being a bit pretentious by saying things like "oh.....Gb has a lovely soft texture" etc etc etc. Yawn. There are however people who genuinely have the condition called synesthaesia, and it's cross-sensory perception where a link in the brain which should have been destroyed whilst developing in the womb remains, hence their senses become muddled and people can taste colours, etc. Hence musical people with this condition who have perfect pitch often identify pitches as colours. This is very different from just spouting meaningless waffle such as "to me, D major is such a rich, royal blue".

QUOTE

I think they were just being a bit pretentious by saying things like "oh.....Gb has a lovely soft texture" etc

Oh I'm so sorry - there's a whole world of colour and texture out there which seems to be closed to you!


Maggie

I thought the synaesthesia programme was really interesting (did anyone else watch it?)...

In response to pianissimo, the programme did state that even non-synaesthetes detect a link between pitch and colour - lower notes tend to be blacks, purples, blues (darker colours), whereas higher ones are yellows, pinks, oranges (lighter colours). Not everyone can put a colour to a specific pitch, but still, it's interesting...

I can put colours to pitches - I'm not a synaesthete (I think) but I do have perfect pitch, and therefore give the same responses each time. I am inspired by notes to put colours down - my spectrum changes as you go up the scale (starts at red through to purple etc), and the hues fade in higher octaves and darken in lower ones (sorry if this is sounding pretentious, but I'm just stating what I hear)... in fact, today, during my music lesson, we were doing some aural practice questions - I did the exercises quite quickly but the tunes were repeated for the other people in my class, so I got out my colouring pencils (yes I know I'm sad) and started drawing stuff based on what I was hearing, like the woman on the programme did. And the interesting thing was, when my friends found out what I was doing, they could put the picture to the tune.

I think most people have some link between audio and visual senses - maybe we're all mild synaesthetes, I don't know. I think judging from the information on this condition that I received yesterday, and the reactions of my friends today, I think there's might be something to prove it.

Or I could be talking complete rubbish, as some evidently think I am.

Can anyone taste notes, I wonder?

I watched the programme and found it interesting (what an excellent recommendation from myself ). I still can't see how anyone who doesn't have perfect pitch can say that G is a yellow colour, surely if you hear a yellow note then you know it's a G hence having perfect pitch. I can understand the going from darker colours and getting lighter up the piano (not that this happens to me) and this doesn't imply perfect pitch. I'm not trying to be rude or imply that anyone is lying: I just can't understand how anyone can say G is a yellow colour when I could play you a G and you wouldn't know that it was one! Can someone explain?

QUOTE (maggiemay @ Oct 1 2004, 02:12 PM)

QUOTE I think they were just being a bit pretentious by saying things like "oh.....Gb has a lovely soft texture" etc Oh I'm so sorry - there's a whole world of colour and texture out there which seems to be closed to you! Maggie

Rubbish. As it happens, I do subconciously associate colours with notes, and I do have perfect pitch which might have something to do with it, but because of the fact that when I'm listening to a piece, I hear G, A, Bb etc, not Yellow, red, blue, leads me to conclude that I'm not a synaesthete; hence I think it would be quite a pretentious and airy-fairy thing for me to say "oh, D major is such a lovely rich blue key!". The fact that you say you only associate this texture with Gb and not F# leads me to conclude that it's not the actual pitch you're associating it with - maybe you played a piece in Gb major once which had a soft texture?

Great poll n great entertainment!!!! Nice one Cheeble!!! I voted for F coz I love the chord of F major, when I mess aqround on the piano it always comes up linked with Am. Plus F is a cool and interesting note. We have a digital piano at school and when you play the bottom F remotely hard it comes out with a E and an F, it is as people say a transnote!!!!

PS You don't realise how much you use a note till its gone!!! *sniff my poor F!!!!!

u lot r mad having a fav note

then again wots wrong with it

go on ppl enjoy ur fav note!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol

Lucy

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QUOTE (Rhapsodin @ Oct 7 2004, 07:51 PM)

QUOTE (pianissimo @ Sep 30 2004, 05:48 PM) I think they were just being a bit pretentious by saying things like "oh.....Gb has a lovely soft texture" etc etc etc. Yawn. There are however people who genuinely have the condition called synesthaesia, and it's cross-sensory perception where a link in the brain which should have been destroyed whilst developing in the womb remains, hence their senses become muddled and people can taste colours, etc. Hence musical people with this condition who have perfect pitch often identify pitches as colours. This is very different from just spouting meaningless waffle such as "to me, D major is such a rich, royal blue". Pianissimo, Oh goodness me - as someone already said, rubbish...nice speculation! The world is never short of egg-spurts, is it? Unfortunately since this is an experiential issue it isn't quite as easy to resolve into brain links (I presume you meant synapses). You can't understand the DATA in a computer by understanding how the electronics work, for goodness sake!!! Haven't you noticed how artists, musicians, wine-tasters, writers and a dozen others as a matter of course steal the terminology from each other? Painters are forever talking about tone and key (as in high key - bright and light). And composers are always talking about colour and light and shade. Indeed, the very word chromatic means coloured. (Greek: chroma) People like Delius and Debussy wouldn't have got anywhere but for their abilities to evoke in the listener quite vivid "pictures". That's before we get to emotional and sensual inuendi! There are conditions that don't bear mentioning on this board under which anyone can experience synaesthesia. It's weird, you see something that gives you the experience you have when you see, say, blue...but mentally sounding of the word "blue" evokes an entirely different colour experience and makes no sense in context!! For me, G flat evokes the taste of cool cherries, D flat, plums, E flat major tonic triad makes me want to pour Martini and lemonade and G# minor makes me want to hide under the table..... ...and I'm very ordinary...

So in a nutshell, what is your point?

Call me cynical, but I would still find it incredibly pretentious and downright laughable if I was sitting next to someone whilst listening to a piece in G flat major and they remarked, "what a beautiful piece; so evocative of the taste of cool cherries!". It's just a meaningless and wishy-washy description of the music which is probably being used to compensate for a lack of real musicality.

Go on, all pounce on me and tell me how the "world of colour and texture is closed off" to me!

I don't have perfect pitch (unfortunately!!) and I have no idea whether I have synaesthesia or not. However, just because I don't have perfect pitch doesn't mean that certain notes don't produce colours in my head! I'll try and explain.......

I can't recognise individual notes by the colours that I 'hear', but when I'm playing sometimes I randomly 'see' certain colours. This is only when I'M playing, therefore I know what the notes are, and over time I've noticed that certain notes give the same colour every time, usually the 'black' notes on a piano keyboard- sharps and flats. It is not something I think about or control, it just happens. I have no explanation for it. However, I am certainly not telling lies or being 'pretentious'. This is an area of science that nobody knows very much about yet, and I don't think anybody can make judgements about what is and what is not possible.

QUOTE (pianissimo @ Oct 8 2004, 06:02 PM)

So in a nutshell, what is your point? Call me cynical, but I would still find it incredibly pretentious and downright laughable if I was sitting next to someone whilst listening to a piece in G flat major and they remarked, "what a beautiful piece; so evocative of the taste of cool cherries!". It's just a meaningless and wishy-washy description of the music which is probably being used to compensate for a lack of real musicality. Go on, all pounce on me and tell me how the "world of colour and texture is closed off" to me!

Have you never listened to a piece and thought it reminded you of something? What about the pieces specifically written to conjure imagery of a specific scene - for instance, "Der Muller und der Bach" by Schubert, which has the piano representing a brook? If a piece can give the impression of a river, moonlight, darkness, bells, elephants etc etc etc, why can it therefore not give colour or taste?

Everybody interprets things in their own way, and taste and colour are two of a number of ways you can experience something. One person may not be reminded of anything, whilst another person might instantly recall a colour or a scene.

I think the way you experience music is a very personal thing, and to some people, calling their interpretations pretentious might be considered rather offensive...

not that I mind personally...

Actually my favourite note is c#
It's a lovely note................

another point i have to make.... have you seen the Disney film, "Fantasia"? It's basically a long concert performed by a full symphony orchestra... the first piece they play is JS Bach's Fugue and Toccata, described as "music for it's own sake"... as this doesn't have a definite storyline, abstract images have been put to it, and these include snapshots of swirls of colour and flashes of light - and it's actually very effective.

now, i wonder how they were inspired to do that? hmmm.....