Comment by in3d | Hacker News Reader

Comment by in3d | Hacker News Reader

I have weed-induced music -> shape, texture, etc. synesthesia. Each instrument (or voice) in a song has its associated brightness, shape, texture, size, location in space, and they all are animated with the song. This form is much less common than the types of synesthesia relating to colors but I think it's the most fun. There are quite a few consistencies that make sense to people who don't have it: lower frequency sounds look darker, louder sounds are larger, drums have a "sandy" (non-solid) texture. It all comes together and makes the song look beautiful.

I'd like to make a VR animation for one song to show others how it looks sometime. There are some videos produced by others but I don't think they give the full experience and they are missing something. On the other hand, I'm happy I don't have this ability normally because I would've probably gotten involved in some music-related field and that might not be a great career path. It seems to make music composition much more intuitive and just "obvious."

A couple good books on the subject: "Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia" and "Sensory Blending: On Synaesthesia and related phenomena."

Marijuana acts as a hallucinogen for some people, so I think that's what's happening with you.

Wish they could selectively breed strains for this.

Pretty cool. I've experienced a similar type of synaesthesia but it was based on rhythmic patterns for me. For instance, I was listening to a song that was in 3/4 or 6/8 or something, and I saw a really distinct triangle pattern. And then the album changed to 4/4 and became more of a square.

On the other hand, I wonder how much of a competitive edge someone with synesthesia would have with music over someone without it.

My understanding is you can perceive when music looks/feels/smells right or whatever your sensory blend is, which means you can perceive things that work well together that others might not. Of course I could be completely wrong about this.

IIRC one or more of the members of Tool has synaesthesia for reference.

Off the top of my head, Jimi Hendrix had it...and Blood Orange

Yes, for example there were a couple songs when one instrument seemed to overlap another and that seemed “ugly” (and could be corrected).

My guess is that it can prove an advantage if you associate it with proper musical education. Without the necessary education, I suspect it would be more of a distraction, where you try to match things that are totally alien to your listeners while neglecting the basics.

As for drug-induced synesthesia, the idea would be the same. It can give you ideas, but most of them are likely to only make sense in your own world. It means that unless you really have too much experience with your drugs, the bulk of the work has to be done on a clear head, with a solid musical foundation.

If you're unfamiliar with "absolute pitch" I suggest you look it up. Some people claim to have AP by way of sound->color synesthesia, but for most people with AP, synesthesia isn't required. AP definitely gives some edge over others in certain aspects of musical abilities.

Reminds me of this, by the author Steve Aylett:

"I certainly don’t think in words. I’m not sure that anyone does. Does anyone really think in sentences, like in films when you see someone thinking and you hear a voice-over? I don’t anyway, I see stuff visually, as shapes, colours, textures and mechanisms sort of hanging there in space. If there’s a hole in someone’s argument I visually see a hole in it, in the armature and mass of the thing. I’ll see the shape of a whole book that way before it’s written, and so far, the books have all ended up the way I saw them originally."

http://www.crimetime.co.uk/Steve-Aylett/

How high do you gotta get for this to happen?

Not very.

It helps if you put on some headphones, relax, and close your eyes.

Auditory hallucinations are my favourite weed side-effect.

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