synaesthesia

I used to experience strong pitch-color synaesthesia, but it's gotten weaker over the years, to the point where it's now closer to timbre-color synaesthesia. It's a pity - I'm convinced synaesthesia augments talent.

Yes, I see - between your example and weirdnet's eloquent definition.

When I think of a day of the week, I see an ellipse that is long and narrow. Monday is on the outside right rim. Then the rest of the weekdays come one after the other, going around the outside of the ellipse to the left, until you get to Saturday and Sunday which are on the inside rim, closest to me (my mind's eye). The weekend gets the entire "inside" rim line.

So, all day today, Friday, when I think of what day it is (in relation to yesterday or tomorrow) I'll picture the word "Friday" and it will be on the extreme left "point" of the ellipse.

See?

43 versus 40, this spelling is still winning.

I'm not synaesthetic, but I have several strong associations with certain numbers, letters, and musical keys. For example:

- I associate the number five with the color red, and with aggressive, businesslike personalities.

- I associate the letter "t" with youth and shyness.

- I associate the key of E with the color green, and with pine forests.

I think it'd be fun to actually see the number five in red, but in lieu of that, I'm happy with my associations.

When I am improvising (and not simply playing from muscle memory), I "see" landscapes with different configurations and textures. Going in a certain direction causes me to play one way, going in another direction results in something different. I can "hear" what it will sound like before I go there. It sometimes takes me while to reach that zone where I perceive landscapes. On a good night, I get there very quickly.

Musicians are strange...

Really, sarra? Hmm... I'd like to read that, if you can find it easily. Thanks!

I think I remember reading a term, or at the very least a corroboration of your experience, c_b. I can attempt to look it up if you so fancy.

I've a comparison table of composers' colour–note/key relations too, somewhere. Everyone's synæsthesias are, delightfully, different.

Plethora: Yes, I never knew it was odd until I read an article about it being some kind of phenomenon with some people... and of course for my version (if it is such a thing), there isn't even a word.

C_b, I think I have a similar thing. I always assumed it was normal...

The mention of this word irritates me, purely because it reminds me of year 11 English and Girl with a Pearl Earring. Baaaad memories.

Other composers who were or were possibly synæsthesic: Olivier Messiaen, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Mr Flight-of-the-Bumble-Bee), Alexander Scriabin (who included a "colour organ" in one of his pieces), György Ligeti, Jean Sibelius

He saw red, but he thought five / He was pleased to find his road trip was enhanced by number-color synesthesia: / 'My trusty Rosinante bounds along the road very well, leaving the friendly aroma of donuts and chicken tenders hanging in the desert air.'

--The Books, "An Animated Description of Mr. Maps"

See also synesthesia.

I'm convinced I have some warped version of this in which inanimate objects, even concepts like "the number 5," have distinctly defined personality traits.

There was an article about synesthesia a few years ago in Smithsonian magazine (I think...).

Amazing that colors appear not just as shades, but as defined shapes. Fascinating.

Yeah for instance I see blue when I hear middle C and other colors for pitch. Pitch and color are related in the way the brain interprets them as signals. Sometimes my synesthesia will even overlap on my visual plane and not just be restricted to the minds eye. Today in my Latin course we were learning about a new declension and a green polygon and a red circle kept surfacing in front of me.

You do, Orbital? This whole concept fascinates me.

Like Mr. S, Nabokov, Daniel Tammet, or Franz Liszt, I see colors when listening to music, forming ideas, or playing with numbers.