Monthly Archives: April 2009

Music and synesthesia

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Another association described in “Musicophilia” is the condition known as “synesthesia”. This means that somehow the region of the brain that deals with perceiving colors gets linked to a sound perception area or more particularly, pitch recognition. All of these kinds of phenomena are fascinating, but they will always intrigue you more when you witness it in someone. I happen to have a student who is visually impaired, who has enough sight to get around without a cane. A few weeks ago, as I was giving him his drum lesson, he started to tell me what fundamental pitch the cymbal had; as I checked on the piano, he proved to have the right pitch. I then went to the vibraphone and, sure enough, he could name each pitch. This kid is thirteen and nobody had noticed that in him. The next week, as before, we were listening to various pitches. He told me that F# was his favorite note because it was making him think of the color blue, and as I asked him about the other pitches, he started describing what colour the twelve different pitches made him feel.

After discovering this I started asking my other students, and sure enough, one of the sax players in my jazz ensemble has synesthesia, with tones and keys having shades of colours, or a certain brightness, that is unique to them and also has strong color association with numbers. Synesthesia means fusion of the senses, which means there can be any one of them involved. Some people also see things like numbers in landscapes, which actually hit close to home. I have always seen numbers that way, going along a path that angles right, left and up, with different shades of brightness, but no colours. I experiences this as well with days of the week, and months of the year; and as I was thinking about it, it is how I memorize pieces of music. So it can be used as a mnemonic device, too.

Oliver Sacks says in his book that about one in two thousand people manifest this condition, and he suggests that there might be a greater ratio, since most people who have the condition don’t see it as such; it is just the way things are, so they don’t usually talk about it.

Music and memories

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Here is a change from all of the nebulus topics I’ve been consumed with recently. Music has a very deep relationship with the brain, especially when considering how many regions of the brain are put to the task when music is experienced. Therefore as the tools to look at the brain become more sophisticated, to the point seeing its functioning in real time, so the effect of music on the brain comes to the fore front. There is seldom a week that passes without some bit of news about it. A recently published book by Oliver Sacks (Musicophilia) is making everyone aware of the influence that music has on our “control module”.

Recently I listened to a radio show with the topic of how one could help Alzheimer patients use music that they learned during their youth to help them recover some of their lost memories. People working with them (most of them from another generation) are actually learning about the music of their patients’ youth in order to expose them to tunes that could help them. I think that as the baby boomers come to age, the Beatles will come as an unexpected rescue to the unfortunate ones who suffer from these kinds of diseases of the brain.

I use my own experience as an example: in my youth, I listened to a particular recording while reading a particular book. I had not listened to this recording in at least twenty years, but when I rediscovered the music, and heard the first notes played on my stereo after all of that time, it was as if I was in the middle of that book, the memory was so clear.

Now one can suggest that we create some of these memories. But since the brain, as we recently discovered, is the only part  that does not lose growth potential in our body, the chances are pretty good. It would be more of a conscious effort than the free-association we make in our teens, but it might be worth it; as when memories are recalled this way, it always gives us a warm feeling of connection.

I am wondering if any of you reading this might have made some of these connections and what kind of interesting, except the summer of …. ( fill the blanks) association you’ve made with a particular recording or song. Let me know, we can compare experiences.