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Music and colour

A lot has been written as synaesthesia - the stimulation of one sense by something which is meant to stimulate another.

My type of synaesthesia relates to music and colour.

For a long time I've associated keys in music with certain colours. It don't associate notes, and it's not related to perfect pitch. My colours don't seem to match anyone else's, but for what it's worth - here they are. You will notice that I am able to distinguish enharmonically, and some of the more extreme keys (for example, B sharp minor) get very dark indeed.

Generally speaking, and as you might expect, the major keys have brighter colours while the minor keys have darker ones. I tend to see the minor keys as overlaid with something like a layer of black dust. Sharp major keys have a "red" feeling to them, while flat keys tend to have a "blue" feeling to them. I've tried to replicate that here by adjusting the relative amounts of red and blue in the examples.

Because of the differences between monitors and browsers your monitor will not display exactly the same colour that I can see. I have restricted myself to the standard 216 "browser safe" colours in an attempt to make up for this. This has caused a problem with C flat major which I see as a greyer colour than that which I've been able to display. I've also added text descriptions which you can read if you position your mouse over the appropriate colour.