Topic: Synesthesia

[seamas]

4 is blue, smells like cinnamon, and tastes like vomit.

oh i forgot.. cinammon sounds like yellow.

I feel like calling shenanigans on the sounds like yellow thing. Something can't "sound" like yellow because there is no sound for yellow. It can maybe associate the smell of cinnamon with yellow, which you then associate with a particular sound (or the other way around), but to say it "sounds like yellow" doesn't make sense.

Huh?

Bright Yellow = D major triad
Yellow ochre = D minor triad

[teethering]

Freaks.

This.

[jmars]

Once in a while, usually when very tired, loud noises cause flashes of light in my head.  Fun fact, synesthesytes often have perfect pitch.  What about you jmars?

I do. I've been a singer and musician since I was young and can name notes by sound.

[Rocket Man]

Freaks.

This.

I agree, a bunch of crazy people!

[khendar]

Once in a while, usually when very tired, loud noises cause flashes of light in my head.  Fun fact, synesthesytes often have perfect pitch.  What about you jmars?

I do. I've been a singer and musician since I was young and can name notes by sound.

I rang up Daniel Levitin when he was in Australia on Dr Karl about perfect pitch. I basically wanted to know if it was a neurological thing or something that can be learned. He said that it can be learned, so long as you learn it before you are about seven years old. After that the neurological pathways can no longer develop to allow you to obtain perfect pitch.

[arthwollipot]

I do. I've been a singer and musician since I was young and can name notes by sound.

Me too. But I learned it during early teenage, contrary to what khendar posted.

[andrewclunn]

Yep, sound seeps into other senses.

[Johnny Slick]

Once in a while, usually when very tired, loud noises cause flashes of light in my head.  Fun fact, synesthesytes often have perfect pitch.  What about you jmars?

I do. I've been a singer and musician since I was young and can name notes by sound.

I rang up Daniel Levitin when he was in Australia on Dr Karl about perfect pitch. I basically wanted to know if it was a neurological thing or something that can be learned. He said that it can be learned, so long as you learn it before you are about seven years old. After that the neurological pathways can no longer develop to allow you to obtain perfect pitch.

Hmm. I knew a guy who had such awesome relative pitch that it basically added up to perfect pitch. He'd more or less memorized a few notes in the lower part of his register, singing-wise, so he'd just hear something, hum one of those notes to himself, and then figure out the interval. All of this he did nearly instantaneously.

[AxeGrrl]

I do. I've been a singer and musician since I was young and can name notes by sound.

Me too. But I learned it during early teenage, contrary to what khendar posted.

Did you learn from this hipster? 





(i couldn't find the guitar version of this ad, which is/was even funnier

[superdave]

Once in a while, usually when very tired, loud noises cause flashes of light in my head.  Fun fact, synesthesytes often have perfect pitch.  What about you jmars?

I do. I've been a singer and musician since I was young and can name notes by sound.

I rang up Daniel Levitin when he was in Australia on Dr Karl about perfect pitch. I basically wanted to know if it was a neurological thing or something that can be learned. He said that it can be learned, so long as you learn it before you are about seven years old. After that the neurological pathways can no longer develop to allow you to obtain perfect pitch.

Hmm. I knew a guy who had such awesome relative pitch that it basically added up to perfect pitch. He'd more or less memorized a few notes in the lower part of his register, singing-wise, so he'd just hear something, hum one of those notes to himself, and then figure out the interval. All of this he did nearly instantaneously.

Most people have pretty good relative pitch.  It is plausible to me that this technique could be trained. 

[Beleth]

I was in a wind band from ages 8-21 and I heard the tuning note so often that I memorized it. The other notes not so much.

[seamas]

I've heard enough testimony that Perfect Pitch can be developed--but when it comes down to it, in almost any circumstance, having Perfect Pitch is not any more beneficial that good relative pitch.
Relative pitch is the real important skill/ability and can be trained fairly easily.
Perfect pitch is at best a parlor trick, and at worst an annoyance.
I have encountered some people with such attuned perfect pitch that they actually find listening to most music to be annoying. Apparently to them, the majority of music sounds out of tune (which it is in certain aspects)

[Johnny Slick]

Yeah, I've heard the same thing. A piano has to be grating to someone with full-on PP.

[superdave]

Yeah, I've heard the same thing. A piano has to be grating to someone with full-on PP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_temperament

[seamas]

Yep, equal temperment is one annoyance to some people with PP, but there is also a considerable number of recordings--and even classical orchestras that will tune a number of cents off A=440.

Then there are things like blues based music, where people will bend notes to some of the "blue notes" that are in-between standard notes--one of them is the note somewhere between a minor 3 and major third. Works great for the blues, but probably annoys people with perfect pitch.