Colours of sounds – seeing music

16 Feb Colours of sounds – seeing music

Someone asked today if blue is the best sounding colour? What do you think? If you want my HONEST opinion, I feel pretty sure that for me at least, blue is by far the worst ‘sounding’ colour. It just doesn’t give me the impression of sound at all. When I think of the colour blue that is pictured, I think of the sky, or I think of snow capped mountains, but it breaks my brain to think about that colour blue as a sound. I don’t like it.

What does ‘yellow’ music sound like?

What colours do you associate with music? Or maybe I should ask, what kinds of music relate to different colours for you? At the moment I am thinking of the colour yellow. It is so bright and expansive. It is such a happy colour. Maybe the colour yellow makes me think of the trumpet or horn section of a fun band. I am thinking of the Cat Empire [Oscar Wilde] or Michael Franti, or the Teletubbies theme maybe. To explain the ‘colour yellow’ to someone who can’t see yellow, which has probably already been done, but I wish to do it in my own words, I would say that the colour yellow is quite like the colour white, but with a little bit of hue, and the nature of the hue is kind of like the feeling of happiness, or the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Blue coloured music

So talking about BLUE, what kind of music is blue music? I was quite disturbed by the particular tone of the blue vinyl that I saw in that Instagram post today, but other tones of blue do seem to me to express a kind of calm, but also a kind of flow, like the water. It is definitely harder to think of a band or artist that seems to me to epitomise the colour blue. Blue is also a sad colour, don’t you think? To feel ‘blue’ is to feel sad in your soul. Tricky. . . I will come back to that one!

[On further reflection] I am wondering if Bjork is a good artist to describe the colour blue? I am thinking of her Vespertine album in particular, but maybe other songs too: ‘All is Full of Love‘ for example. What do you think?

For people who can’t see the colour blue, I would say that blue is a kind of open and wide colour. The hue of blue is maybe mid way between black and white. It is quite like the colour grey, but it has a little something else to it, which is kind of like a sadness perhaps, or a bright open sky, or a deep ocean. Blue is a colour that goes far beyond what you can see, and I believe what we can perceive.

Red the colour of my heart

Since we have done the two other PRIMARY colours, perhaps I will move on to the colour red now. Red is a very INTENSE colour, and for me it is the colour that I am most likely to reject in favour of a less controversial sensory experience. It can be quite CONFRONTING, and sometimes it makes me feel rather nauseous inside. It can also be a very healing colour. I do find that I crave the colour red most when I am recovering from a serious illness or destructive emotional state. People say that the colour red can make them feel angry, or they ‘see red’, so I guess they get hot under the colour and aggressive perhaps. Red is the colour of fire, of heat, of warmth. It is also the colour of our blood, so it such an integral part of our bodies or our flesh. Perhaps that is why I am so drawn to it when I am healing. It is a very ‘vital’ colour, and can be excitable too.

I am not sure why we can sometimes have too much of a good thing with this colour. It has a shorter wavelength (so I believe), so perhaps we are getting light energy in our eyes at a faster rate than the less intense (and moderate length wavelength) yellow, or the much longer wavelength of blue, and the more calm experience of looking at a blue lake, a blue sky, a blue ocean.

In any case we were talking about red, and given that the wavelength is shorter, it probably does relate to more intense or faster music, so maybe some faster music like BROCKHAMPTON or Diplo. To be honest, at the moment, I find talking about red music all too much and all too depressing. If you can’t see the colour red, I would say that its hue is closer to the colour black, but it has intense warmth in it, like the environment of a desert sand, or the huge Ayer’s Rock in central Australia. It is a colour which relates to fire. Perhaps that is why it is so hot that it just burns and makes me want to be sick talking about it.

Green coloured music!?

To be perfectly honest, I am a bit perplexed where ‘green coloured music’ is concerned. I saw someone wearing green ear phones the other day and wondered to myself what kind of music does epitomise the colour green? There are is a beautiful song my Joni Mitchell, I think it is called Carey, but I am not sure [edit: it is called Little Green], in which she names her daughter ‘Little Green’. It is a colour of growth, I suppose, and maybe also a colour of the wilderness or of life eternal. To be evergreen is to live perpetually, and unlike the blue air and red earth, green happens between these two planes. So, then, what is green music? Perhaps reggae music is green [I am not sure about this]. Perhaps soul music is green music [I am not sure about that either]! Protest music like Michael Franti seems green [or more likely red], as does growth music like Macy Gray or India Arie [yes, perhaps!]. I am not sure, and this is my personal interpretation, so you can take from it what you will.

If you can’t see the colour green, I would explain it emotionally as the feeling you get when you eat something that really makes you feel ‘vital’ on the inside. It might be a spinach, lettuce, and apple smoothie, it might be a beetroot salad with nuts and seeds, or maybe it is a dollop of coconut yoghurt. Whatever it is that makes you feel like you are healthy on the inside that is what the colour green looks like emotionally! It is so hard to describe a colour as an alien or a scientist!

Purple music – what is it?

Purple is supposed to be the colour of royalty. It definitely is both rich and intense, but beautiful at the same time. Out of all the colours it is definitely the closest to the colour black, I would say. From what I have just read, purple has an even longer wavelength than blue, which is interesting because it is a ‘mix’ of red and blue, so perhaps there is a kind of circular nature to wavelengths. Does anyone know? Is this a thing. I am sure I am not the first person to point out that we are going around in circles here, except that red is 700 nm and purple of violet is 400 nm. I am too tired to look it up right now.

If I had to describe the colour purple as an emotion, I would say that it is a proud kind of feeling, so the feeling of feeling proud of yourself and others. As Cadbury have Copyrighted a particular shade of purple, it is probably a colour of richness, or decadence too. Those days when you go out and splash around your credit card are probably purple kinds of days, hehe. Even though they can feel a bit ‘red’ in the remorseful after effects!

So what would a purple song be? I would actually argue that maybe Michael Franti (again!) has some purple songs! Regal songs, so really fine upstanding songs that make you feel proud like Macy Gray’s The Way or someone like the local artist Maya whose soul music just feels like chocolate for the soul.

Orange music! Happy and energetic

It seems to me that of all these beautiful musical artists in the world, most of them have a range of colours in their music, and they play music across a range of emotions and wavelengths. Orange music seems to be a mix of happiness and energy, so what kind of music would that be? Upbeat, happy electro, like the first few songs of that amazing mixtape – October Mixed Business. Or something else fun and happy. I am thinking Mighty Mouse, I am thinking the Brass Knuckle Brass Band (might be yellow), but it is kind of a passion and intensity with a happiness that is just so lovely. [Headman: Moisture]

If you have never seen the colour orange before, maybe you could think of it as the sweetness that comes into your mouth when you bite into a sweet peach, or lovely sweet orange or mandarin. Mangos are that sweet orange colour. It is kind of a warmth of the passion you feel when you love someone combined with the happiness and sunshine of feeling so delightfully happy. I think that is what orange means to me.

What do the colours mean to you? What songs do you associate with which colours? Would love to hear your thoughts!