Comments on: What Sound Does a Color Make?: Auditory Synesthesia

By: richie

richie — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:18:07 +0000

Nice going Dad, I want to see that machine when I come to visit Nevada.

Richie: Music on da move

By: dick baublitz XPI

dick baublitz XPI — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:19:12 +0000

I built a *Black Box* to try and heal my arthritic legs and it does seem to work for me. Although I was in a wheelchair for years, I now walk some. I know my device puts out 3.7 volts Direct Current
and 7.4 microamperes @ 25 to 40 killohertz, variable. Cent/Octave is variable to the color spectrum +31.
I gives me electric RF, Sounds and Color.

It makes food taste brighter.

Yikes, what have I invented? Help!

By: Paula

Paula — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:53:07 +0000

I’ve written here about my troubles with reading C-flat and F-flat. Since written music is associated with the color of the letter name, but the actual keys on the keyboard are also associated with the same colors, C flat is written as an orange note, but since I have to play the B key for a C-flat, I have to play a blue note. After I thought this through last year, I no longer write the letter B or circle the music or other things I’ve tried, I simply color the note C-flat blue and have little trouble playing it. F-flat (the key E on the keyboard) is a little harder since E is a yellowish orange and F is an orangeish yellow! F is a little darker, though. I do have to use the precise color that I see. Any old blue won’t do. For example if it’s a vivid blue with a hint of green in it, that’s D, whereas B is a cooler blue, almost a violet.

Music also has shapes. The shapes are colorful and mostly like a bar graph of the actual direction of the phrase, so if the music goes up in pitch, so does the graph. It’s superimposed on anything I am actually looking at.

Different timbres have textures, too. Certain organ pipes feel very crunchy! I like crunchy sounds. I think it’s more than metaphorical that usages such as “smooth,” “bright,” etc. are used to describe musical qualities.

By: Synesthesia

Synesthesia — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:00:40 +0000

What other musical shades do you see Dr. Chew?
The downside to my synesthesia is feeling slightly ill when I see pink and orange together or pastel yellow with pink.
Ew.
I’ve notice that certain noises drive me insane too.

By: frances

frances — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:48:50 +0000

I’ve thought this many times about my own autistic 3yo — that he may be able to see a range of colors that I’m not able to see, and hear in a wider dynamic range as well.

Also, none of his therapists were able to explain why getting glasses (at 2.75yo) resulted in a sudden improvement in his speech, or why his limited speech is much more clear when he’s wearing his glasses.

I have so much do learn about autism, and the way my son is wired…and this is just a small part of what I don’t understand.

By: C. S. Wyatt

C. S. Wyatt — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:45:57 +0000

My scooter is the bright “bumble bee” yellow and black. It’s quite visible zipping along the streets. I just like the safety.

My MacBook Pro is red. I love red, black, grey, burgundy, and such. Very soothing. Most of my suits and clothes were black for years. My wife keeps trying to change that.

I hear sounds all the time. It never stops. More sounds with some images and colors than others. Numbers are shapes in my mind. I am super, super sensitive to my environment which is why I hate MN during winter — public transit is so bad I lose the entire next day shaking.

Some colors make me physically ill. So do some sounds. Unfortunately, babies seem to emit sounds that make be so ill…. you get the idea. When people complain that I’m not tolerant, they don’t understand my physical pain. Absolute distress.

I can’t do movies in a theatre. I have to limit where I dine to places children are highly unlikely to be screaming. I pay for first-class air fare no matter what. Keep me away from noises, smells, and horrific colors.

I know I’m trapped at home most days. Teaching, I have to know the room and all its properties. My lab space sucks — so I don’t use it or my office space. I work from home. Brown walls? Yikes. And the AC + lights noise is horrible. No one else notices.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:43:56 +0000

Yes!, C major is creamy vanilla white—always thought of D as some shade of blue though?

By: Synesthesia

Synesthesia — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:52:22 +0000

I have that!
For me, I “See” music in colours based on their keys.
Like C is a creamy vanilla white, D, a shade of red, G major, a different shade. D minor is grey, ect.
I also can smell music, taste it, feel it’s texture slightly on my skin, associate people and abstract concepts with a smell and taste (but they aren’t really scents that exist) I started doing that after reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but the colour thing i’ve done since I was a kid.
Like smokey joe by tori amos has manificient texture, and it’s a shade of blood dark red with black undertones and an interesting atmospher.
I think i ought to get music training in the future because I have good pitch because of the colours.
Another friend of mine has word-colour synesthesia and doesn’t see the same colours I do.

By: Tanya

Tanya — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:01:25 +0000

WOW! Interesting about the color yellow being a favorite. Both my PDD-NOS and Classic Autism kids LOVE yellow! It drove me crazy when my now 12 year-old would draw her pictures in yellow crayon or marker when she was a toddler. I couldn’t see the details. Now my 3 year-old favors yellow in everything he uses…playdoh, markers, crayons, Crocs, shirts, and game pieces. I shudder when we play Barnyard Bingo if I get a yellow piece on my turn as he *has* to be the one to get it or tantrums ensue. Anyway, very interesting to hear and have been meaning to ask if this was common.

By: Storkdok

Storkdok — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:23:32 +0000

This is paraphrased from Olga Bogdashina’s book on sensory perceptions in autism, excellent book, BTW.

Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen has estimated that 1 in 2,000 may have synaesthesia, and women predominate at a ratio from 3:1 to 8:1. It is more frequent in Left-handed people, and is believed to be genetic. 15% of people with synaesthesia have a history of one of their first-degree relatives having dyslexia, autism, or ADD. The actual incidence of synaesthesia in the ASD population is unknown.