Synesthesia

Anon La Ply said:

What shape do you see, Watso? An amorphous shape?

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To clarify, they aren't like textbook shapes... The best way I can describe that "song" as played by jimi is very "sharp"... I'm sure that sounds weird, but it's like I look down from the top on a landscape, and that landscape will take shape depending on what's going on. Even when it's chaotic, it's usually not hard to pick out individual aspects.

Makes perfect sense to me, Watso!

One day I'll get Skype together, Duncan. I've been dragging the chain with telecommunications - very ordinary with mobile devices (at the moment).

Cheers Watso ... making me wonder about the relationship between subjective visualisations and the wave forms.

Anon La Ply said:

Cheers Watso ... making me wonder about the relationship between subjective visualisations and the wave forms.

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Maybe there is something to that, but it's not like a wave form in my head. For example my the way I have my bass drum normally is very "blocky" in shape, especially when I leave the beater on the head instead of letting the note go more round. Some sounds seem almost less "dense" than others too, like you could poke them and they'd have give.

I usually don't like to talk about this. Makes me feel like a weirdo. I find it very hard to describe because I can't really know how things relate to other people. The other aspect is I'm usually not wanting to be the center of attention in the room, and in general mentioning this will cause a string of strange looks and questions. A few times I've caught myself trying to show band-mates something we are talking about by drawing it in the air with my finger, only to get odd looks, and resort to humming the part for them. Sometimes I wonder how other people keep track of these things and what relates to what for them.

I think in general my mind is just very internally visual. For me, solving a problem before me is getting as much information as I can, and then moving those blocks of information around in my head until something makes sense. I use the term "landscape" because it's easier to describe, but really it's kind of a 3-d space I use for organizing thoughts and information. Music "flows" so it's even more landscape like by nature I think.

Anon La Ply said:

Not at all here. A question for synesthesiacs (?) ... I'm curious to know what colour you see various sounds in ... for instance, what colour do you see Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa-q-ztyZZw

What shape do you see, Watso? An amorphous shape?

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Great question! For the star spangled banner, the whole beginning section on the guitar is like spiky reddish orange "waves," they vary in size and shape based on volume and tone. The tapping stuff in the middle is like bluish yellow dots..

Towards the end where he gets really crazy it's like huge descending/ascending black and red waves.

Etc etc, I could go one forever.



I've actually thought about "painting" my favorite songs as I see them. I can't paint... But I could learn