What Does Your Favourite Song Taste Like?

This image is the ‘writing prompt’ that inspired this article, it reminds me of the Weirwood trees from A Song of Ice and Fire

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How Trees See Time

“Time is different for a tree than for a man. Sun and soil and water, these are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present, always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. They root and grow and die in one place, and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak.”

- George R.R. Martin

What would it be like to taste a great song? How about smelling an emotion? You can’t open a door and walk into the 1970s (well, given the decor of some of the buildings in my area you actually can). Our senses are linked to the medium through which we experience them… most of the time…

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Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a fancy name for when you experience one of your senses through another. For example, you might hear the name "Alex" and see green. Or you might read the word "street" and taste citrus fruit. Synesthesia is when you hear music, but you see shapes. Or you hear a word or a name and instantly see a colour.

One of the most common responses is to see letters, numbers, or sounds as colours. People with Synethesia might also:

• See or hear a word and taste food

• See a shape and taste food

• Hear sounds and see shapes or patterns

• Hear sounds after you smell a certain scent

• Hear sounds and taste food

• Feel an object with your hands and hear a sound

• Feel a touch when seeing someone else being touched. (This is called mirror touch.)
  

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The Colours of Keys

I have personal experience with synesthesia-like sensations.

The key of C is like porcelain china: delicate, dainty and easily broken by disharmony. It feels like writing on paper in white ink, or being locked in a padded cell. It feels like zen emptiness. I’m not a fan of the key of C. The key of A minor on the other hand is beautiful. The musicians among you will realise how illogical that distinction is. The key of G is like the countryside to me, green and easy on the eye. The key of E is like the orange sunset over the beach right by my house. The key of C minor is black and white like a chessboard and feels mechanical. D minor (the chord, not the key) is purple and smokey, D major is blue and D dominant 7 is yellow.

I don’t have associations for every key or chord since it’s common for musicians to gravitate towards certain keys out of preference and not venture beyond them that much for a long time. The keys and scales I’ve played around with more in recent years have no associations. Perhaps this is because those relationships are forged earlier in life, or at the beginning of acquiring a skill.

These are feelings and sensations as much as they are visual imagery. Chopin’s Prelude Op. 28: No. 7 in A major is like tea stained paper to me - that is what it feels like. It’s almost impossible to explain quite how. Did I learn it on tea stained sheet music? That’s entirely possible. This is one of the rare pieces that I actually learned from sheet music (which I’m not great at reading), I drink a lot of tea… and I’m fairly accident prone. That’s a plausible trifecta that would explain the link.

As you can tell, these links and associations are random. There isn’t an underlying logic to them, at least not one that I’m aware of.

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Sense and Sensibility

“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”
― Fritz Perls

We are cursed to surge forward on the tides of time. In this way we live linear lives. But, in other ways, we can blur the boundaries between senses and smudge stark divides. Ask yourself: what is the colour of loneliness? What does your favourite song taste like?

Next time you’re having a specific sensory experience, check in with your other senses, don’t neglect them. They might just have something important to tell you.

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