General Question

SeekerSeekiing's avatar

Anyone else see music or numbers in color?

Asked by SeekerSeekiing (966points) August 29th, 2008

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/22/peel.php
When I was small, I thought everyone saw this way…it’s now being studied. There is even a man blind from birth in the UK who sees sequential words in color…. Fascinating, huh?

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20 Answers

generalspecific's avatar

isn’t it like synthesia?
(would check your link but class is about to end..)

SeekerSeekiing's avatar

Yes, it is synthesia?

Harp's avatar

I have a friend who’s number/color synaesthete. She never forgets a phone number or a birthday, because she remembers it all as color patterns. She loves some numbers and combinations of numbers because of their nice colors, and hates others because they’re ugly.

Do months or days of the week have any color or shape associations for you, Seeker?

SeekerSeekiing's avatar

Yes, I see swirls of color when music is played…and when some poetry is read…I have me own show in me own head!!! I don’t see colors with numbers….I find I can ‘edit’ music someone has written, by finding a discordant color in the mix… and I can make my poetry better the same way…

Harp's avatar

Here’s an interesting discussion with several music/color synaesthetes sharing their experience.

loser's avatar

This is such a trip!!! I just found out a couple weeks ago that I have synthesia! I just thought everybody else saw things the way I do. I see numbers in a progression of levels with different variations of color. I can remember certain dates and numbers because of the way they look and feel but the ones that that don’t look or feel good to me I have the hardest time remembering and often just can’t. Also, I see music as varying levels of color and feeling. My music teachers couldn’t understand how I could memorize music so quickly and didn’t believe me when I said how I can see it. It’s pretty cool but has downsides, too. I can’t just listen to background music and do other things like other people seem to be able to. What I hear, I see, and it’s pretty distracting. It makes it really difficult to concentrate on much else. I sometimes do but I really shouldn’t listen to music while I’m driving. ITSA

loser's avatar

Oops! Please ignore “ITSA”, my iPhone is being weird. Anyway, I’ve actually been distacted to the point of making really stupid mistakes and even caused an accident once. Wow! I’m so tripping that this thread is here!!!

SeekerSeekiing's avatar

Loser! We are twins separated at birth! kind of, I… have always seen music, I don’t see numbers. And I too, cannot do anything with background music… Roommates in college just could not understand why I couldn’t study with music. Spent a lot of time in the libraray.

I’m pretty good, also at ‘blocking’ out the colors. They are still there, but I won’t ‘look’ at them——so they are not as intense. Otherwise, I can have my own ‘fireworks’ show.

How’d you find out? I found out in the UK about 10 years ago, I was reading an article and thougth. Hey, me too! Until then I didn’t really talk much about it.

Did you feel weird when you were young because of this??

loser's avatar

I thought everybody did this and I didn’t feel weird about it until I started studying music at 7. Every one thought I was a protege but I think it was really just because of the way I see sound. That’s cool you can block it out. I was just thinking that I wish I could do that. I can’t even walk and listen to my iPod because it makes me feel sick, like motion sickness!
That’s great! Twins!!!

SeekerSeekiing's avatar

Yes, I think I learned to block it somewhat because I opened my big mouth about it in 1st grade and was completely ridiculed. The teacher even made me stand in the corner for lying! Like I said, I can’t completely, but I can give it less attention. I so understand the motion sick reference… I never took music, so I don’t know if it would have helped. Like I said it helps me with lyrics FOR music and poems.

Twin, do you have any psychic senses also? And are you creative? it is thought this occurs more in creative folks. I’m a writer and I paint…

Wow, I love talking to someone else who does this! What music do you play? Do you write it? Your own I mean?

loser's avatar

Your teacher made you stand in the corner for lying?!! I’m sorry, that’s so messed up!!! Twin, how about if I PM you…

lefteh's avatar

Rimsky-Korsakov is one of my favorite classical composers. His synesthesia greatly influenced his works, such as the Flight of the Bumblebee and Scheherezade.

SeekerSeekiing's avatar

Loser: That’d be great…I just emailed you….my name doesn’t show up in the ‘from’ column, instead, “Kids…playing in the universe,” comes up. I get thrown into lots of spam files. Look for me…

Oh the Flight of the Bumblebee is one of my favorite music to see!

DandyDear711's avatar

for me four is red and six is blue. I noticed it more as a kid than as middler ager.

SeekerSeekiing's avatar

Cool! Just the 4 and 6??? You’ve probably blocked it out. It’s amazing what we can block…

Yuko345345's avatar

I can see alot fo the same things. When I listen to music, I can see alot of colors flashing and moving with the music. Makes a pretty entertaining show. It also happens with numbers and letters. The letter ‘F’ is red, and ‘E’ is orange. And ‘C’ is green. 6 is brown. And 83 is a dark blue.
It happens with alot of other what-nots, but it would take a while to list them all.
I always thought I was just an over-imginative person, Haha.

toomuchcoffee911's avatar

I am a little bit. I read a book about it and finally realized what I have.

5= red 6=light blue 7= yellow 8= dark blueish green

DandyDear711's avatar

When I was driving home tonight blaring Jason Mraz, I was thinking about this Q and thankful I don’t see swirling colors when I hear music. I would be an accident waiting happen!!

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