April 12, 2021

Tones

One element of music that I regularly, deeply explore is tone. To me, each note possesses its own colour which can further convey feeling when played. Since music contains many tones, each tone’s interactions form patterns or interesting geometry. It is as if the aspects of music theory have an ‘animated will’.

There are a total of 12 notes in the standard music scale and each are uniquely coloured. However, I have noticed that a single note may have a couple other layers of colour or a grouping of colours. It is also possible that a latent quality can affect the perceived colour of a tone such as octaves, instrument type, singer’s voice qualities, but has yet to be realised by me.

Glimpses

I have had much time to ponder over the meaning of my synesthesia and continuously return to the specific thought of it being linked to a spiritual sense – perceiving distinct types of energy. It almost feels as if I am peering into another deeper energetic layer of sound.

A few times, I have intentionally sat myself in a fully enclosed space in pitch-blackness in order to cause visual, sensory deprivation. Within this space, I played music through a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, in order to  ensure a good concentration of sound . Since I was unable to visually perceive any physical light, I still seemed to observe unique geometry, patterns, and a vast range of colours within a dark, colourless void space. Within this seemingly abstract space, the appearing visual imagery had qualities that were animated by an innate correspondence with the music’s various rhythms and patterns.

So far, it is to the best of my understanding, that this method of sensory deprivation allows my synesthetic perception to become stronger and more immersive.

In the image below, I have visually explored all minor chords in a radial form. I have displayed both the rising continuation of notes in pitch going up the music scale, and of course, each note’s own colour. (The specific direction of the music spiral has no specific meaning.)

-Garrett Porter