Associating keys with colours/images/ideas

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Another new topic! Music's just been on my mind a lot, as usual...

I was just wondering if you associated certain keys/ notes with certain colours, images, abstract feelings, ideas... or anything like that.
Because I know I do!

For example, C major usually makes me think of something new or of a rainbow. Ab major often makes me picture a ruby-raspberry-reddish colour... c sharp minor makes me think of fire, or autumn.

I'll post the rest of my list later, but I just want your thoughts.

Thanks for reading

[invictious]

I think Ab major is also rather reddish in general..at least for the Heroic Polonaise Op.53 by Chopin.

A major is a lovely vibrant red also, but is of a different shade which I find it difficult to describe. Something Mozartian..

E major is a rather happy yellow

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

A major is a lovely vibrant red also, but is of a different shade which I find it difficult to describe. Something Mozartian..

Oh cool, A major is red to me too! For me, it's more "red" than Ab, a bit darker but still vibrant...

I don't have a colour for E major, more of a abstract thought/ feeling/ idea that I can't describe.

I wonder what everyone else has to say... and if there are similarities between our responses, why...

[ongaku_oniko]

I'm wondering, do you people have synethesia?

or simply have perfect pitch?

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

I'm wondering, do you people have synethesia?

or simply have perfect pitch?

Well definitely no perfect pitch. If you remember that perfect pitch test that was posted, my score was reallly low. And I always assumed everyone had a little synethesia, but that the traits are really strong in people who are actually considered to have synethesia?? Are the 2 related?

Oh and something else I just felt like saying. I'm learning Faure's Barcarolle in Ab major right now (beautiful piece btw, everyone should listen to it  ) and I picture a gondola being rowed accross ruby-red water... and whirlpools of ruby-red water... It's like a magical world where water is made of liquid rubies. Or raspberry juice (:

[ongaku_oniko]

Well, if Ab is red, then when you hear red, you'll know it's Ab?

:O

For me,  hear whatever you tell me XD Like if I call C "do", D "re", etc, I hear "dooooooo" when I press C, and "sooooo" when I press G for example.

An hour later, I press a note and hears "dooooo", I say "C", turns out it's an E

&feature=related

watch that

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Well, if Ab is red, then when you hear red, you'll know it's Ab?

:O

For me,  hear whatever you tell me XD Like if I call C "do", D "re", etc, I hear "dooooooo" when I press C, and "sooooo" when I press G for example.

An hour later, I press a note and hears "dooooo", I say "C", turns out it's an E

&feature=related

watch that

Well it's easier for me to tell the key when a scale is played, or an entire piece is played, as opposed to one note. Because Ab major is red, but A major is also a different shade of red, and G sharp minor isn't red to me at all...
When it's a single note, my association with a colour/ idea is not instant... I have to think really hard, and sometimes I'm wrong. That quiz was so fast I guessed almost every note!

So do you not associate keys with colours/ images/ ideas? Answer the question in the OP

PS: The beginning of the video creeped me out... But you see why physics interests me? It's so linked to music!
But those colours don't match my imagery. Bs are purple for me... not Es and Fs. Fs remind me of trains They were right about D though, it makes me think of Christmas!

[ongaku_oniko]

That's really weird. I'd assume it's easier to tell a note when it's by itself, because if it was in a whole piece, you can hear that it's a "do" or  a "re" or a "mi", and well at least I associate "do"s with Cs.

maybe you have a weird version of perfect pitch

No colors at all with music.

For example, when I hear a C major scale, what do I see?

...

A piano. (because that's what's in front of me when I'm playing it)

When I hear a D major scale, what do I see?

...

A piano.

When I hear an A minor scale, what do I see?

...

A piano.


When I hear a C#-  dominant 7th chord what do I see?

any guesses?

No, not a piano, I see a youtube tutorial on how to play such complicated music :p :p

[kelly_kelly]

I don't have perfect pitch, but I naturally associate letters with colors, so this transfers to my conception of keys. It's not something I can tell by hearing, but when I learn music from the score I use the "colors" of the note names to help me memorize. I also associate keys with moods, but that's just because composers tend to write similar pieces for a given key.

[perfect_pitch]

Just perfect pitch...

[invictious]

I'm wondering, do you people have synethesia?

or simply have perfect pitch?

Perfect pitch = check
Synaesthesia = probably. The association just happens naturally.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

@ ongaku
What if a different instrument is playing that scale?
I don't have a weird version of perfect pitch, I have a weird version of imperfect pitch.
Like I said, I thought that most people would associate keys with some sort of imagery... not necessarily synethesia, but also associations that develop over time?

@ kelly, I think I associate letters with colours too, but the association with colour isn't as strong and the colours don't match what I hear music notes as.
 
When I was really little, I had a toy piano, and one of the melodies it would play was in B major, and it always made
me think of purple. Except I had no idea the key was B major, because I couldn't read music or name notes yet.


Anyway, I'm still interested in what all your associations are, and how they compare...

For me:

C major: new things, brightness, rainbows
C sharp minor: autumn, fire, orange-yellow-red
D major: Dark green, Christmas!
Db Major: Lighter green, nature, forests with waterfalls
E major: Cream, ivory
E minor: Silver/ cool colours
Eb Major: Sweet and comfortable things... like cotton candy and cake and home.
F major: trains, some unknown shade of orange
G minor: brownish orange, similar to c sharp minor but darker.
G major: Nature, Bells, Gold, Christmas again!
A major: A warm, vibrant, but somewhat dark shade of red.
A minor: mountains, waterfalls.
Ab major: Ruby/raspberry red
B major: Light purple, carefreeness
Bb major: Dark purple

[ongaku_oniko]

@ ongaku
What if a different instrument is playing that scale?
I don't have a weird version of perfect pitch, I have a weird version of imperfect pitch.
Like I said, I thought that most people would associate keys with some sort of imagery... not necessarily synethesia, but also associations that develop over time?

I'm pretty sure 99.999% of the people don't associate "keys" with colours.

So if you hear a piece of music you automatically know what key it's in? And Fur elise in E sounds different than Fur elise in A? Or in C?

Then as far as I'm concerned, that's perfect pitch... people without perfect pitch can't tell the difference between keys...

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

I'm pretty sure 99.999% of the people don't associate "keys" with colours.
So if you hear a piece of music you automatically know what key it's in?

No, it's not automatic, and it only happens most of the time. I'm sure I can find a piece in B major that doesn't make me think of the colour purple.
Perfect pitch is "perfect" and from what my sister tells me, whenever the person hears a note, they hear "do" or "C" or whatever the note is, right away. The colour isn't the first thing I see when I hear a note, but the association is still strong. Sometimes I have to listen to a piece a few times before I start linking it to a colour.

Also, what about creating images/stories in your head while you're playing / listening to pieces? Don't most people do that? And then if images for pieces of the same key are similar, you might eventually start associating that key with that colour?

My teacher was the one who made me think about this. We were working on a piece in c sharp minor (nocturne op 27 no 1) when she brought up that c sharp minor made her think of fall and fire, and I thought, "wow, me too! I wonder if everyone sees c sharp minor like that... "

[ongaku_oniko]

I can't differentiate between keys at all.

Except maybe when I hear a major key I get an image of those wooden drummer figurines lol...

minor keys either feel like egypt or something really sad.

But all major keys are the same, and all minor keys are th same.

[ted]

Broadly speaking, one key is more or less as good as another for me. However, I think many pianists, in particular, have key associations based on physical grip, haptic convenience and just simple habit. This is probably exaggerated if they actually play more frequently in some keys than in others, if they repeatedly play favourite pieces in particular keys, or if their own music employs stable key centres. Most of mine has no "key", in that stable sense, at all and I enter and leave almost all scale subsets very rapidly during improvisation. 

[invictious]

Keys do make a difference. For some reason, it is in that key signature that La Campanella sounds just about right with that delicate feeling. For some reason, it is in that key signature that the Heroic Polonaise Op.53 just sounds like in that key

Try transposing Chopin's Fourth Ballade Op. 52 from F-minor into C minor, and see what happens. I think that feeling in the original key is lost. This is very difficult to explain, and I think the best way to think about this is just to listen for yourself.


By the way, Fur Elise is in A minor, occasionally modulating to E major, and then C major and G major. Then there is my favourite section of the piece in F major, before recapitulating the theme and moving onto D minor. There are only a few places where the piece modulates to E major or E minor

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

I can't differentiate between keys at all.

Except maybe when I hear a major key I get an image of those wooden drummer figurines lol...

minor keys either feel like egypt or something really sad.

But all major keys are the same, and all minor keys are th same.

I think you said you were learning Chopin's Etude op 10 no 5? What if someone transposed it into some key like C major... you wouldn't notice?

@ invictious
I know what you mean... When I was young I liked to transpose my pieces into different keys, just for fun. At first I thought, well the melody sounds pretty much the same...
 But then I realized that the feeling and mood just wasn't the same, and no matter what key I tried, or what dynamics I used, I couldn't get it to mimic the original tune.
 And I didn't/ don't have perfect pitch (actually back then I was pretty much tone deaf)

Out of curiosity, What colours do you associate f minor and c minor with?

[nanabush]

I have perfect pitch, and I'd say that once I'm aware of the key, I start associating.  Bb major always reminds me of being on a boat or the water or something, and G major for example reminds me of a forest.  If there was a piece in G major called "boat on the water", for some reason I'd be hesitant listening to/playing it.

I don't think I have synesthesia, but I have a pretty crazy imagination; since I'm aware of the key a piece is in, my mind just wanders.  I'm so used to associating moods/colors that I will do it automatically for a piece or even a scale. If I'm listening to something in Eb minor, it just has this blackish/dark purple atmosphere.

If someone were to say "play something RED", I'd probably tend towards F major.  I don't physically see the color red when I hear an F, but I just associate the character, so something bright, warm, and just red...

These threads are cool, because everyone has such a hard time explaining their train of thought! 

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

These threads are cool, because everyone has such a hard time explaining their train of thought! 

Good thing we don't have to only use words to express ourselves, we have music too
 

[ongaku_oniko]

I think you said you were learning Chopin's Etude op 10 no 5? What if someone transposed it into some key like C major... you wouldn't notice?

And in fact, the black keys etude has been transposed to a "white keys etude".

and I can NOT tell the difference. At all.

@Nana:

and in fact, there's a piece (I THINK it's in F) called "boats at anchor" by joan last

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

And in fact, the black keys etude has been transposed to a "white keys etude".

and I can NOT tell the difference. At all.

I couldn't find a recording of this white keys etude, but I took a recording of the original op 10 no 5 and used audacity to change the key. I don't know how good audacity is with these things but when I listened to my computer generated version of the white keys etude... it sounded less "bright" to me.
I could sense the difference in feeling better than I could hear what key it was in... because of course, like I said, I don't have perfect pitch. =/

@Nana:

and in fact, there's a piece (I THINK it's in F) called "boats at anchor" by joan last

I checked all of Faure's barcarolles, and NONE of them are in Bb major, so I guess you'd hesitate listening to all of them? I would probably just imagine the water as a different colour, depending on the key 

[ongaku_oniko]

Today I just played fur elise starting with E, A and B (I never know what key it's in, I just know what note it starts on... lol)


And it's confirmed; I couldn't hear a difference at all. Even if I played it in E and then A right after, there's basically no difference.

But when I finally played it in A and listened oh, so carefully, I felt this despair, this sadness that makes my heart want to cry out tears, the meloncholy tune which pierced my hopes and dreams, for I finally realized that not only do I not have musical talent, but I do not even meet normal-people's musical ability standards... I can't even hear key differences which appearantly most people can...

And to think that after 18 years of life, I finally started to appreciate and love music... I finally had a goal in life, and was working towards it, I finally started working hard, started to try my best, only to realize now, that I don't even meet average standards, and that I am... musically handicapped.

Oh the despair, the sadness, there is no English word that can describe fully and accurately how I felt during that Fur elise in A...

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Today I just played fur elise starting with E, A and B (I never know what key it's in, I just know what note it starts on... lol)


And it's confirmed; I couldn't hear a difference at all. Even if I played it in E and then A right after, there's basically no difference.

But when I finally played it in A and listened oh, so carefully, I felt this despair, this sadness that makes my heart want to cry out tears, the meloncholy tune which pierced my hopes and dreams, for I finally realized that not only do I not have musical talent, but I do not even meet normal-people's musical ability standards... I can't even hear key differences which appearantly most people can...

And to think that after 18 years of life, I finally started to appreciate and love music... I finally had a goal in life, and was working towards it, I finally started working hard, started to try my best, only to realize now, that I don't even meet average standards, and that I am... musically handicapped.

Oh the despair, the sadness, there is no English word that can describe fully and accurately how I felt during that Fur elise in A...

Hmm, you know, sometimes I feel that way about my musical ability. Sometimes I even feel silly for loving music so much, even though I'm not very good at it. You know, my mom asks me at least once a week why I insist on playing piano, when it's not like I'm going to become a pianist or anything.("Piano is not your forte") (And she's not trying to be mean, she just worries about my future, haha).

Buuuuuut, I don't think you can ever be musically handicapped. Music is for everyone.   I don't think she played an instrument, but even Helen Keller enjoyed music. And what about all the people who play instruments when they are missing fingers, hands, arms...?
Talent and ability wise, I think that all people are equal, but different. Where one person lacks talent or ability, they make up for it somewhere else. Sometimes finding that talent takes time though... There are so many different abilities required to play music, who defines a normal person's musical ability standard?
Besides its an ability to be able to feel music like that... and to play a piece starting on different keys, without knowing what key it's in. Me, I have to think about key signatures.

I didn't make this thread to see who had the ability to visualize keys, or tell the difference between different keys. I was just curious to see if anyone else did this. It's almost like asking:
"Are you right handed or left handed?" "Are you a visual learner or a kinesthetic learner?"

[ongaku_oniko]

Well umm... thanks for the encouragement? lol...

I wasn't trying to complain or anything, it was more of an attempt at humourous writing, though I meant every word of what I said.

I know you didn't start this thread to say that you're better cuz you have this ability. I don't blame you for starting this thread, and in fact, I thank you. I mean I want to know that people like this exists. It's much better being informed about where I'm at rather than being blind about it.

But after my 18 years of experience, I've concluded that there are differences in people. Much of it can be minimized by a good environment while growing up, unforunately my parents aren't very musical and didn't really pay attention to this aspect. Though, of course, my mom did make me start piano lessons, which helped me appreciate music now, but it was a bit late to really change any intrinsic aspect of my musical ability.

Once long ago, I was so young and naive, and also believed that people just have different things they're good at, but after years of experience, I've finally realized otherwise.

From an old man to a little girl

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

I didn't think you were trying to complain, you know... this is a piano forum, the perfect place for pianists and pianist-wannabes to talk about their musical musings...  It's not like all my friends in real life share my ... obsession.
 And also I felt like I could kind of relate to what you wrote.
 
But if you really think about it, people do have different things they are good at. I'm not just trying to be idealistic (and I'm trying hard not to be young and naive )
 I've spent years thinking about why some people seem to have more talent, than others. "Why is math so easy for some people, that it's as natural to them as breathing?" "Why am I not the student who is failing?" Oh and I don't know about BC's education system, but I'm sure you had some sort of gifted program. Well at my school, we didn't call it the gifted program, we called it something else, and I was glad, because I was thinking  "well, doesn't everyone have gifts? "
 
Blind people might not be able to see, but most of them have very good hearing. People who are deaf and blind probably have a really good sense of touch. I have yet to meet someone who is talentless. I choose to see whatever lack of ability I have as an opportunity to discover something that makes up for it. 
 

From an old man to a little girl

So you're a hoaxer and you've been lying about your age this whole time? 

[ongaku_oniko]

I didn't think you were trying to complain, you know... this is a piano forum, the perfect place for pianists and pianist-wannabes to talk about their musical musings...  It's not like all my friends in real life share my ... obsession.
 And also I felt like I could kind of relate to what you wrote.
 
But if you really think about it, people do have different things they are good at. I'm not just trying to be idealistic (and I'm trying hard not to be young and naive )
 I've spent years thinking about why some people seem to have more talent, than others. "Why is math so easy for some people, that it's as natural to them as breathing?" "Why am I not the student who is failing?" Oh and I don't know about BC's education system, but I'm sure you had some sort of gifted program. Well at my school, we didn't call it the gifted program, we called it something else, and I was glad, because I was thinking  "well, doesn't everyone have gifts? "
 
Blind people might not be able to see, but most of them have very good hearing. People who are deaf and blind probably have a really good sense of touch. I have yet to meet someone who is talentless. I choose to see whatever lack of ability I have as an opportunity to discover something that makes up for it. 
 So you're a hoaxer and you've been lying about your age this whole time? 

Well, let's just say some people's talents are not so useful. I fail to see the talents of th people sitting in the middle of downtwn vancouver smoking and doing drugs, wasting their lives and not fnding a proper job.

And no, I've always said I am already at an ripe old age of 18 years o.o Why would you say I've been lying about my age? :O

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Well, let's just say some people's talents are not so useful. I fail to see the talents of th people sitting in the middle of downtwn vancouver smoking and doing drugs, wasting their lives and not fnding a proper job.

That is called wasted talent and that's the sad thing .
 It doesn't mean their talent is not there, who knows, maybe one day they will get off the streets. I know a woman who used to live on the streets and do drugs, and now she is a volunteer who helps homeless people.

And no, I've always said I am already at an ripe old age of 18 years o.o Why would you say I've been lying about my age? :O

If 18 = old man, then what about someone who is 30? Or 50? Or 80?
 

[invictious]

Well umm... thanks for the encouragement? lol...

I wasn't trying to complain or anything, it was more of an attempt at humourous writing, though I meant every word of what I said.

I know you didn't start this thread to say that you're better cuz you have this ability. I don't blame you for starting this thread, and in fact, I thank you. I mean I want to know that people like this exists. It's much better being informed about where I'm at rather than being blind about it.

But after my 18 years of experience, I've concluded that there are differences in people. Much of it can be minimized by a good environment while growing up, unforunately my parents aren't very musical and didn't really pay attention to this aspect. Though, of course, my mom did make me start piano lessons, which helped me appreciate music now, but it was a bit late to really change any intrinsic aspect of my musical ability.

Once long ago, I was so young and naive, and also believed that people just have different things they're good at, but after years of experience, I've finally realized otherwise.

From an old man to a little girl

If a transposition of some little piece which you normally cannot even hear the difference to until just then that makes you have a revelation..then I guess whatever works for you then.

[ongaku_oniko]

That is called wasted talent and that's the sad thing .
 It doesn't mean their talent is not there, who knows, maybe one day they will get off the streets. I know a woman who used to live on the streets and do drugs, and now she is a volunteer who helps homeless people.
If 18 = old man, then what about someone who is 30? Or 50? Or 80?
 

Okay, another example
Having a talent in, say being able to lick your nose, and elbows for example, is not as useful as a talent in business. Agreed?

And I said from an old man to a little girl, so it was just between us two, the 30,50 and 80 year olds don't matter in this conversation

If I was talking to a thirty year old I'd've said from an adult to another adult
for 80,  probably would have said from an younger adult to a more experienced adult who is still young at heart

@invictious: Not sure what you're saying but ok o.o

I guess just because I'm not able to fully appreciate the differences in keys doesn't stop me from appreciating music as much as I can.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Okay, another example
Having a talent in, say being able to lick your nose, and elbows for example, is not as useful as a talent in business. Agreed?

I'm sure that the person who can lick their nose and elbows has some other talent too though (:

And I said from an old man to a little girl, so it was just between us two, the 30,50 and 80 year olds don't matter in this conversation

If I was talking to a thirty year old I'd've said from an adult to another adult
for 80,  probably would have said from an younger adult to a more experienced adult who is still young at heart

Alright. But when you said that, you kinda reminded me of ladypianist. 
 

 

[ongaku_oniko]

That was the point

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

That was the point

To confess that you are her?

 

[ongaku_oniko]

if that's what you want to think


Anyway, I tried again wtih fur elsie starting in E and A, well, I'm pretty sure it's just an illusion because I want to hear a color and a difference so much, but


Fur Elise starting from E sounds slightly more... celebratory, like a pinkish red, but more red than pink, and more happy as if it's celebrating...

Starting from A is this pale sandy yellow color, and very sorrowful, full of agony.

If I remember correctly, starting with B is somewhat greenish, like a natural sorrow... lol

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Yesterday I went to my friend's house and played my Barcarolle on her out of tune piano (she doesn't play it anymore )
It sounded more orangey than red... It was pretty interesting, the out-of tune-ness didn't really bother me because of that.

[ongaku_oniko]

I haven't tuned my piano in .... 6 or 7 years, after I came back and played it, I can't hear any difference at all. Neither can my mom or dad.
But when I played it in the phone to my granpa, he said "You improved, but I think you really need to tune your piano".


People's ears are weird. I wish I had better ears....

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

I haven't tuned my piano in .... 6 or 7 years, after I came back and played it, I can't hear any difference at all. Neither can my mom or dad.
But when I played it in the phone to my granpa, he said "You improved, but I think you really need to tune your piano".


People's ears are weird. I wish I had better ears....

:O You probably should get your piano tuned!
 I know I need to get mine tuned...

[iratior]

I too associate keys with colors, but I don't make much of it because it doesn't seem logical.  C is green, E is red, F is blue, G is orange, and B is silver.  A-flat seems golden to me, E major is red.  Rather than think of keys as colors it might make more sense to think of them as months of the year, or signs of the zodiac.  We can even arrange to have the key of F-sharp major be for Capricorn.  In Capricorn, light is at a minimum, and this corresponds to F-sharp major's using a maximum of the black keys on the piano.  Keys can also be compared to the hours on the clock, and this makes correspondences between chord progressions and geometric shapes;  I was just seeing if I could use that to make sense of the chord progressions in opus 39 no. 6, an etude tableau in A-minor.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

I too associate keys with colors, but I don't make much of it because it doesn't seem logical.  C is green, E is red, F is blue, G is orange, and B is silver.  A-flat seems golden to me, E major is red.  Rather than think of keys as colors it might make more sense to think of them as months of the year, or signs of the zodiac.  We can even arrange to have the key of F-sharp major be for Capricorn.  In Capricorn, light is at a minimum, and this corresponds to F-sharp major's using a maximum of the black keys on the piano.  Keys can also be compared to the hours on the clock, and this makes correspondences between chord progressions and geometric shapes;  I was just seeing if I could use that to make sense of the chord progressions in opus 39 no. 6, an etude tableau in A-minor.

Very interesting... that's a really cool way to think of it!
I don't really make much of the colours either but it affects me when I play because I visualize the colours and sometimes its helpful.
 Thanks for sharing that.

[chopinaninoff]

I see a heavy blue for E flat minor and E major, E flat major
Green for A major and a flat major
Purple for g major
red for b major and b minor
orange for D Major
Yellow for d flat
Orange yellowish for f major

[nanabush]

Yellow for Db

I still have such a hard time describing what comes to mind when I hear different keys played.  It's as if there is a whole experience that I want to write down, but it's just at the tip of my tongue, and when I think too hard, it's gone.  So if I hear Db, I think yellow -> gold -> bright -> etc, and then it gets more and more cloudy.

What throws me off is if I hear something like G# minor played and the image is a blue sky... it computes about as well as someone yelling an arbitrary word like "chicken" when the word would obviously be ' blue sky'.

I like when something is spot on to how I would perceive that key; for example, I was playing a little flash game the other day, and the background music was in Eb minor, and you were this little guy running around an abandoned building; and you pretty much need to get to the end of the level, and the lighting was dark purple and black.  (this was a cartoony game)... whoever created this game couldn't have hit the nail harder on the head!

(someone else right after me might completely see it the opposite way though!  That's what I find so intriguing!)

[iratior]

Based on what I wrote above, I think the appropriate key for the month of May would be B-flat major or F-major.  Sometimes it fits together;  take the B-flat major prelude from WTC Book I.  It sounds like pelting rain at the beginning, building up to the claps of thunder in the form of the chords (which combined would make a louder sound on the harpsichord than the single notes).  And I don't think many Amercans would dispute the frequency with which thunderstorms occur in May.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Interesting responses!

(someone else right after me might completely see it the opposite way though!  That's what I find so intriguing!)

Me too

Based on what I wrote above, I think the appropriate key for the month of May would be B-flat major or F-major.  Sometimes it fits together;  take the B-flat major prelude from WTC Book I.  It sounds like pelting rain at the beginning, building up to the claps of thunder in the form of the chords (which combined would make a louder sound on the harpsichord than the single notes).  And I don't think many Amercans would dispute the frequency with which thunderstorms occur in May.

Oh I like that imagery!
  I like B flat major for May too!  except I imagine purple and yellow... like flowers and thunder and sunshine

[ongaku_oniko]

Here's a question:

Do you associate colours with keys? :D:D

Do you "hear" C major for example, if you see a certain colour?



I don't see why you would "see colours" from music. Especially if you don't hear music when you see colours.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Do you "hear" C major for example, if you see a certain colour?

Nope. I guess I'm just more of a visual person. Although ALL those tests I take say that I'm an "auditory" learner. I like saying stuff/ hearing stuff in order to remember things and study for tests.

 

I don't see why you would "see colours" from music. Especially if you don't hear music when you see colours.

I don't really see the colours... I imagine them Whenever the music provokes images in my head, the image isn't multi-coloured like in real life. There's usually one dominant colour. Kind of like looking at the world through glasses tinted a certain colour.

[ongaku_oniko]

yeah, you know games where you memorize steps? like say it shows you
steps liek this: ↑↓→↓→ ←

I can remember it a lot better if there is a different sound for each of the arrows.

Or if they are numbers. I memorized 52 digits of pi in 20 seconds.

But I'm hopeless at memorizing words. I can't even memorize like 15 words in a minute.

And if music "provokes images in my head", its not the key that does it; it's the tone of the piece. I mean whether it's peaceful or exciting, fast or slow, sorrowful or joyful. Stuff like that.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Or if they are numbers. I memorized 52 digits of pi in 20 seconds.

But I'm hopeless at memorizing words. I can't even memorize like 15 words in a minute.

It seems like I'm hopeless at memorizing words right now too... I'm studying for French exams 
What about letters and numbers?  I remember once in a school psych test they had me random letters/ numbers BACKWARDS.
Are you one of those people obsessed with pi? I have quite a few friends who memorized  the first 200 digits of pi (and counting!), celebrate pi day, pi approximation day and bake pi pies! I've personally never bothered  . Why don't people ever memorize e?
 But 52 digits in 20 seconds is really impressive. I don’t think I can do that…
 

And if music "provokes images in my head", its not the key that does it; it's the tone of the piece. I mean whether it's peaceful or exciting, fast or slow, sorrowful or joyful. Stuff like that.

The key just changes the colour... the images depend on everything else, I guess . 

[ongaku_oniko]

well, colour is dependent on the mood for me too. Well actually, there is no real "image" when I listen to music, it's more like the ambiance .. like you know how in some music players there's this random colour generation thing that changes with the music? That's kinda like what I see.

Or like a flowing river. The colour changes with the mood of the music.



And not really, I memorized pi back then because I like to pretend that I'm smart, and I didn't know what "e" was back then . Well, I can memorize e to 2.718281828... (because that's about as many decimal places I've seen)

and no, I can't memorize anything but numbers. It might have something to do with the fact that I process everything (in my head) to do with numbers in Chinese, and everything else in English.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

well, colour is dependent on the mood for me too. Well actually, there is no real "image" when I listen to music, it's more like the ambiance .. like you know how in some music players there's this random colour generation thing that changes with the music? That's kinda like what I see.

Or like a flowing river. The colour changes with the mood of the music.



And not really, I memorized pi back then because I like to pretend that I'm smart, and I didn't know what "e" was back then . Well, I can memorize e to 2.718281828... (because that's about as many decimal places I've seen)

and no, I can't memorize anything but numbers. It might have something to do with the fact that I process everything (in my head) to do with numbers in Chinese, and everything else in English.

Like I said in my first post, it really depends on the piece. I don't always see a certain colour for a certain key, otherwise I'd have perfect pitch... right?  especially if the tonality keeps changing... But I found that colours help me guess what scale my sister is playing when we play the scale guessing game. Of course she always wins, because she has perfect pitch. 

One of my pi memorizing friends says that to sound smart, you take bio. (She's doing physics)... And I just rely on calculators too much! When I think e, I picture the graph e^x on my graphing calculator.
Speaking about numbers and Chinese and calculators (which is off topic, I know ), I still mentally add/ subtract with a mental abacus in my head. I haven't taken abacus lessons in like 7 years but it's changed the way I do math... forever. :O

[ongaku_oniko]

I uh... don't know how to use an abacus :O

but I do math in Chinese, it's much much more efficient. Especially the multiplication table. My math teachers in elementary and highschool were always amazed how we (Chinese kids) can do mental multiplication of two four digit numbers (like 3422 x 1838) faster than other kids doing two digit multiplication like 13 x 17.