Linked

There is a book that inspired me to begin our first lesson on the subject of color, as opposed to music. While this book itself has little to do with either topic individually, it offers a great deal of insight into how relationships exist all around us and why we should pay attention to them. Linked: The New Science of Networks, by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi is a great book for any person of any profession or interest in relationships.

Why color? If I told you that the sound you hear when you play a C on the piano has traits similar to the color red, you might consider beating your head on the table in anticipation of some long-winded mathematical problem. You're right in assuming that mathematics are involved, but the answer can be simplified. Color is a product of light, which is simply a vibration of varying rates that create a reaction within the optic nerve in your eye. According to Edwin D. Babbitt's Principles of Light and Color:

"As C is at the bottom of the musical scale and made with the coarsest waves of air, so is red at the bottom of the chromatic scale and made with the coarsest waves of luminous ether."

If you follow this pattern, you might find something interesting about the order of colors.

C: Red
D: Orange
E: Yellow
F: Green
G: Blue
A: Indigo
B: Violet

Remember Mr. Biv? Roy G. Biv, that is. Furthermore, if you relate each of these fine colors of the Rainbow to the planets and their color analogies, you'll soon find that the note C can be traced to the planet Mars.

C: Mars
D: The Sun
E: Mercury
F: Saturn
G: Jupiter
A: Venus
B: The Moon

(( I'd also like to take this time offer my respects to Pluto. You'll always be a planet to me. ))


Now, you might be asking yourself what the importance is behind learning these relationships. I felt this was a good way to see how music is much more than numbers or dots on a page. It has logical relation and reasoning to many things outside mathematics, colors, and planets. Most importantly, I wanted to use this example as a way of showing music as a visual art. The more you can visualize when you play, whether it be where you hands are or what comes to mind when you hit a note or strike a chord, the faster you will learn. These will strengthen the connection between mind, hand, music, and heart.

The strongest advantage that the piano has over other instruments is its visual element, thus why it has become such a large gateway into music. Everything is right in front of you! You can see all of the keys in one clear view, and you would know how to find a C note even if the keyboard expanded out twelve miles in either direction....

... or would you?

I suppose that will have to be addressed in our next lesson! Fear not, we'll have you playing a song by our next lesson. Tune in soon! (no pun intended)

Reference: The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color