Synesthesia anyone?

[trion12]

Originally Posted by TRose

I also had an experience where I contracted the flu. It was while I was trying to learn the fingering to Blackbird. While sleeping with high fever I “played” it in my mind for what seemed like 1,000 times. It was a serious fever dream. A “shape” of cord progression and fingerings where seared Into my mind. The next day, to my wife’s amazement, I could play it as if I had been playing it all my life.

That doesn't surprise me at all.
The mental burn-in is a much bigger challenge than the physical mechanics in playing music I think.

Years ago when I was studying music the jazz player Don Thompson came in to give a clinic. He plays multiple instruments at the highest level (bass, piano, vibes.) When asked how he found time to practice them all he said he did it in his mind visualising his fingers playing the parts and hearing them in his head.

When I was learning to play jazz I would transcribe solos by great players by ear with a pencil and paper without using the instrument. This was a means to train my ear and to expand my abilities as a player. It was slow and painstaking to do this but it really burned things into my brain. In some cases I was replaying a 2 bar section dozens of times til I could hear it deeply enough to write it down correctly. I think of this deep listening.
After completing a transcription I would then pick up the guitar and could play it pretty much correctly first time.
The mechanics were not the hard part- searing the sounds into my brain was.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by TRose

I also had an experience where I contracted the flu. It was while I was trying to learn the fingering to Blackbird. While sleeping with high fever I “played” it in my mind for what seemed like 1,000 times. It was a serious fever dream. A “shape” of cord progression and fingerings where seared Into my mind. The next day, to my wife’s amazement, I could play it as if I had been playing it all my life.

Common experience. You're saying the same thing Hal Galper says here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDw1igyuvxk

Originally Posted by TRose

As a clinician I am familiar with synesthesia in general but was specifically unaware of Spacial Synesthesia, one of the 60 types of synesthesia.
In talking to many friends, some musicians, many not, Ive found individuals who have reoccurring scents perceived when hearing music. They could not tell me if the specific smell varies with key, genres, tempos, etc.. Some individuals report seeing color with music. Some see music in three dimensions. There are others I’m sure. All the people who reported such experience said they always assumed everyone had similar sensations ( didn’t realize it was unique) or they had never discussed it because they thought it was seemed too “crazy”.
Of course there are many types of synesthesia, with only a fraction involving audible stimuli.
Anyone on the forum with a synesthetic experience?
Cheers.

I remember the first record I ever bought, aged 13 (Jet Harris and Tony Meehan's Scarlet O'Hara) gave me a strong sense of texture, combine with elements of colour and flavour: the closest thing I could compare it to was a toffee apple: sweet, almost sticky, crunchy, dense, red. Obviously the "red" came from "Scarlet" - but I don't know where the rest came from. The sleeve of the 45 was candy-striped, but so were a lot of sleeves then, without that sensory impact. (I always thought the disc label was red, and was surprised to find it was dark blue when I checked.) In musical terms it does have a dense "texture", but that word is only supposed to be analagous, not synesthetic.

Aside from that, I have had a couple of instances of visual imagery from pieces of music, one of them drug-induced. But only those two.

In general, I do visualise music in the sense of seeing musical time as linear space, like marks on a ruler. I wouldn't call that synesthetic at all, it's just a useful analogy - no different from how the stave shows time in linear form, left to right.
And pitch up and down, which is also a rather strange analogy when you think about it. Why should "high" notes be perceived as physically high? Increases in frequency occurring in a vertical dimension? Most of us take that for granted, but a young student of mine proved to me this is not natural at all. He's 8 years old, has a good ear, but really struggles with the concept of "high" and "low" in terms of pitch. He judges pitches by their timbral content, and tends to judge a bright sound, or a loud sound, as "high". That's clear by how he explains his answers when they're wrong.
He has real trouble focusing on the pitch content alone as a "high" or "low" factor. I remember finding the same thing in other kids of similar age - responding far more to timbral factors, having to be educated into associating "high" and "low" with pitch alone.

[jalbert]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

F is, sort of khaki, E is orangey, B is red .. ish, and A is dark blue. I don't like playing in flat/sharp keys - they have no colours.

I'm curious: do the colors remain the same if you were to use a capo on the first fret? If so, you might be perceiving the impure intervals between the fretted notes (due to equal temperament) and associating them with colors.

[TRose]

Thanks Trion12 and JonPR for that information! I’ve never heard that but suspected it to be the case after my experience.
I watched the video and I hat makes sense.
What an incredible forum we have here. The willingness of members to generously share this information with me is wonderful. I am grateful.
Sincerely,
Tom R

[TBman]

Many times I would be composing something and suddenly get the sense that something stinks.....

[why2]

The other book being referenced could be “This is Your Brain on Music” by Daniel J. Levitin, copyright 2006. Dr. Sacks is quoted “An important book. Endlessly stimulating.”

[TRose]

Just read Oliver Sachs book “Musicophilia”. It was a fantastic read and I would recommend it for anyone with an interest in music and/ or neurology. It did have a chapter on synesthesia and many other interesting phenomenon and occurrences.
Good stuff.