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Views from the Choir Loft

What Color Is B-Flat? Life as a Musician with Synesthesia

Keven Smith · January 11, 2021

HIS IS GOING TO GET WEIRD, so please bear with me. Do you picture each number and letter in a specific color? What about Monday? Or November?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you probably have a condition called synesthesia.

For synesthetes, the senses cross over to some extent. We can’t just see the number 7 as a black numeral on a white background. It has a definite color. Of course, my color is probably different from your color. Hence the first rule of synesthesia: never judge another synesthete’s colors.

They say two to four percent of the population has synesthesia. There are different types and degrees of the condition. I have a mild case. I perceive colors for numbers, letters, months, days of the week, and each of the U.S. states.

My two eldest children have additional symptoms. My son tastes flavors when he speaks or hears certain words. For example, “lightbulb” is minty. As for my daughter, she recently revealed that certain male voices trigger specific food cravings for her. A church friend we knew years ago sounded like chocolate cake. A priest who recently filled in at our parish made her want turkey (carved straight off the bird, mind you—not the lunchmeat kind). At least her diet is balanced; one of her online teachers is refried beans, and another priest we know sounds like crunchy red apples.

Somehow, I’m mushrooms. But she loves mushrooms on pizza.

So far, the condition sounds harmless, but you can imagine where I’m going with this. Musicians rely on hearing. Hearing is a sense. If synesthesia makes the senses cross over, then couldn’t that interfere with making music? 

For me, the effect has been mixed; it gives me another form of perception, but it’s one that’s hard to explain to others. I’ll sometimes hear a voice singing and think that it sounds too yellow, or that it needs more yellow. But what is yellow in this context? I love baritone sounds that are coppery-brown rather than chocolatey brown. But how to teach that?

When I hear another organist play, I often perceive an overall color for the piece. I’m not sure whether it’s related to the registration, the key, the texture, or some other factor.

When I’m improvising at the organ, I try to remain aware of what key I’m in and where I’m at in the scale. I perceive each of the keys as a color, but since I don’t have perfect pitch, I’m going off of the color of the letter rather than the sound of the note. I also picture the colors of the other two notes in the triad. This helps me ground myself in the key as I picture the three colors swirling together.

Now, I can imagine how someone who has severe synesthesia plus perfect pitch might get bothered by certain consonant combinations of notes that happen to have clashing colors. Or something like that. But I suspect synesthesia is generally a slight help to musicians.

If you’re a musician with synesthesia, I’d love to hear from you in the Facebook comments. Please feel free to share your experiences and anecdotes. 

Ah, synesthesia. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you’ll probably never fully understand. Remember when celebrities used to wear colored lapel ribbons to show how deeply they cared about various issues? I’ve often thought there should be a Synesthesia Awareness ribbon.

But it will never happen. We would never agree on the color of the ribbon.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: synesthesia Last Updated: January 12, 2021

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(Read full biography).

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    26 January 2023 • FEEDBACK
    “Jeff, I wanted to personally thank you for your spiritual witness at the Symposium & often blogs that you write too. Praying that prayer in the mornings My God, my Father and my all (by Cardinal Merry Del Val), mentioning saints’ stories of Brébeuf, Jogues, John Vianney, monks who fought in WWII, their hard work in spite of terrible conditions, their relentless zeal for the faith, their genuine love for the laypeople they served, etc. Overall though—more than anything concrete I can point to that you did or said—it was your demeanor at the Symposium. I could tell you really absolutely love and believe the Catholic Faith. You don’t get that everywhere, even in Church circles. And your humility is what then makes that shine even brighter. It is super inspiring! God is working through you probably way more than you know.”
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    Symposium Draft Schedule Released!
    Those who head over to the Symposium Website will notice the tentative schedule for 2023 has been released. This is all very exciting! Very soon, we will begin accepting applications, so please make sure you have subscribed to our mailing list. If you are subscribed, that means you'll hear announcements before anyone else. (It’s incredibly easy to subscribe to our mailing list; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.)
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    Good Friday Polyphony by L. Senfl
    The editor of the Sacred Music Magazine recently made available to the public this splendid article by our own Charles Weaver. It includes an edition of polyphony for the GOOD FRIDAY “Reproaches.” Renaissance composers often set the various offices of Holy Week; e.g. readers will probably be familiar with the beautiful TENEBRAE setting by Father Tomás Luis de Victoria (d. 1611). From what I can tell, Ludwig Senfl (d. 1543) was originally a Catholic priest, but eventually was seduced by Luther and ended up abandoning the sacred priesthood.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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Many declare that Vatican Council II brought about a true springtime in the Church. Nevertheless, a growing number of Church leaders see this “springtime” as a rejection, a renunciation of her centuries-old heritage, or even as a radical questioning of her past and Tradition. Political Europe is rebuked for abandoning or denying its Christian roots; but the first to have abandoned her Christian roots and past is indisputably the post-conciliar Catholic Church.

— ‘Pope Francis’ Chief Liturgist (31 March 2017)’

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