My favorite aspect of music has always been that i can see it. Most of the time while listening, sometimes while playing guitar. But it happened a lot more when I was younger. I was disappointed when it started going away. This happened about the same time when I started thinking in words, maybe coincidentally. I also lost my ability to have lucid dreams. Together, these were a huge loss for me.
For a while, my synesthesia was dormant. Only once, for the first time, I tasted the music. But recently it came back, but now it’s different. It only happens when I’m in the right mood/setting. If i’m listening to interesting music (it certainly doesn’t happen with the Ramones) in the dark, on a comfortable surface, I can enter this semi-conscious state. It’s not sleep.
Out of nowhere, these stories come to my mind. Interesting characters come out. I’m never a character. These stories are really entertaining, and most of the stuff within either comes from stuff in my subconscious, or else total randomness. Even though I’m sort-of in control, the events often surprise me, and there’s usually a shocking twist ending. If I try to gain total control of the ‘dream’, the state of consciousness is lost and the stories are no longer real. It’s really interesting to see how the music controls the events (that’s how it can be surprising.) I made the mistake of doing this to death-techno Funker Vogt last night, and the very disturbing results kept me up until three.
Last year, my band director and private teacher told me to try to develop this ability, to see the music. So far I can see the music in color. (This teacher was very into Faber Bierren and his research into color and its effect) When I applied this to my trumpet playing, there was an immediate and definate effect. The music became multidementional and had much more emotion. Even if I was reading an etude from a book, it took on a different personality. The more I discovered the more I was interested. I found that individual musical scales have a color attached and that many of my peers associated the same color with it. The most valuable skill I found by trying to develop my synesthesia was tone control. By focusing on a certain shade of color, I could manipulate the tone of my trumpet.
My teacher retired from lessons in mid-year and since I had forgotten largely about synesthesia. However, I hope to begin developing it again.
Sounds like you’re entranced in the hypnogogic state. Its a pre-dream state in which the typically full-immersive environment hasn’t fully formed; its hallucinogenic, rather than dream-like.
Also, what you describe isn’t quite lucid dreaming. If attempting to gain control of the dream causes you to regain consciousness, you aren’t achieving lucidity. Or, at least, you haven’t mastered lucid dreaming techniques.
Not nearly to the extent you have, though I think I’d really enjoy it. Sometimes I can tell what color or texture a piece of music has, and occasionally images will present themselves, but not often.
The most recent occurance was when listening to The Fletcher Memorial Home by Pink Floyd, it suddenly occurred to me that the song was “white.” This was maybe a month ago.
I asked Mudshark once if he associated certain colors with certain songs once. We wound up discussing it at length, and it turned out that most (more than 80%, I’d say) of the songs that I got a color from, he said he’d see the same one.
Even when Orange Skinner and I would disagree on a color, the song would be a similar color, like red and yellow, or blue and purple. Nothing like orange and green.
Well, as for methods of teaching, he just started asking me what I felt and what I saw when I played. It took a couple weeks and he did this for just about every song we did in band and lessons. I don’t know if I was already synesthesia capable and did not know it or if I developed it. All I know is that last November, I was definately seeing the color before I knew what I thought it was.
This was not your normal music teacher. He was the absolute best teacher I have had and my playing ability skyrocketed. Instead of focusing on stupid etudes and excercises in the books, he focused my lesson on things like color and personality and applied them to music.
Well I’ve got very mild synesthesia - I didn’t realise that most people don’t associate words with colours til I saw a program on it. Frankly the only time I really notice it is when I look at a London Tube map. I always get the Victoria line muddled with the Jubilee (“Victoria” being a silver/grey to me - not the light blue or whatever it is on the map).
Dull huh?