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The color of chords


alexri

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Posted

I was reading an interview between Robert Fripp and John McLaughlin and at one point they started describing the colors they think chords "are." Feel free to share your own.

 

 

Mine (don't read till after you post):

 

 

 

 

 

 

A- Red.

B- Brown.

C- Blue.

D- Yellow; transparent yellow.

E- Green.

F- Also red, possibly orange.

G- Gray/white/silver, with light blue undertones.

Guest farnsbarns
Posted

Since I don't have perfect pitch, like 99.99% of people, this doesn't work for me, if you handed me a guitar tuned down half a step I probably wouldn't notice until a second musician joined in. I can obviously hear the difference between a minor chord and one with a 7th added, flattened 5th, augmented 9th etc etc but you're going to find that very few people can have an opinion on this.

Guest farnsbarns
Posted

The Color of Music

 

Synaesthesia

 

I don't see colors when I hear notes/chords, but I relate open major chords to colors like:

 

C- Blue

G- Yellow

D- Green

A- Red

E- Violet

B- Orange

F- Indigo/Purple

 

Ah, now you've defined the chords as open major chords, which all have different voicing, I can get it. I still don't associate them with colours but I can see how others might.

Posted

I would tend to associate types of chords with particular colors. Minor chords are blues & purples. Major chords are reds & oranges. The blackest chord has to be Dm7-5

Posted

Cool post! I have always associated letters, numbers, decades (50's, 60's, 70's, etc.) chords, or anything like that with colors. It just happens, I never even knew other people didn't. Then at one point I read an article talking about how it was an actual 'thing' as farnsbarns points out.

 

For me...

 

A- Red

B- Blue

C- Yellow

D- Light Brown

E- Dark Brown/Black

F- Also Dark brown

G- Gold

Posted

D is generally thought to be yellow, I've heard of that before...which would make it reasonable for Eb to be gold...I don't think I can hear green though.

Posted

EDIT:

Oops, just saw that zigzag already linked to synesthesia

 

This phenomenon is known as synesthesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia#Sound_.E2.86.92_color_synesthesia) and it turns out that quite a lot of people have it. I don't really see a colour appear when i hear a note, but always can tell what colour I think the note is related to momentarily. What I experience is probably not real synesthesia, rather just a different way of expressing the artistic thoughts us artists have (painters, musicians etc.). I find it easier to find the perfect chord if someone tells me to play something purple, rather than a specific chord.

 

Oh, and maybe I ought to add my own interpretation:

 

C - yellow

D - light brown

E - red

F - orange

G - yellow

A - mellow blue, a bit like the Gibson logo in the background of the forums

B - purple

 

Funny how much we seem to differ in our opinions...

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