Synaesthesia - a sensory sensation

By: Carrie Russell

Date:: 30 Nov 2011

Synaesthesia – how does music affect our senses? How can a certain chord or song make us see a certain colour or conjure up a particular image? Audio Network explored these questions with an ‘Evening of Music and Pictures’ at the Soho Hotel last week along with a room full of TV producers, creative directors and music experts.

First up was Ruth Dockwray, Muscologist and Lecturer in Popular Music at Southampton University. Ruth explores 'the sound box' - in this case how we hear music in our heads when listening through headphones. Ruth provided an amazing insight into how music and technology have changed significantly over the last 50 years with the move from mono to stereo and how recordings have changed to deliver a different music experience to the listener.

It is hard to imagine in text but if you are listening to a certain track and the drums are on the left and the vocal is on the right, or the rift seems to go through your head...this is no accident. Dave Grohl whispers to us in our ‘intimate zone’ at the beginning of ‘All my life’, as if he is sharing a secret. Once the band kicks in he noticeably moves back into the ‘social zone’ and we are no longer privy to his whispers. The next time we were listening to a track from our favourite album, Ruth encouraged us to listen carefully to pick up these subtle cues. See if you can pick out specific tracks that really move you in this way and leave a comment below.

Our next musical treat took us seamlessly from Mozart to Tchaikovsky to Ragtime, a journey through 200 years using only one chord. Harry the Piano breaks the tracks down as we see how Mozart uses light notes and tension/recovery notes to create the soothing melody. Tchaikovsky uses the same principal but uses the elongation of the left hand chords to give depth to the right hand sequences which no longer are delicately played, but all played as chords. To move onto ragtime we have a simple lesson in counting, emphasising the weak notes on the 4/5 count of a 4 bar 8 count sequence (are you still with me?!) gives this upbeat melody that bought a collective smile to the room.

Harry then seamlessly takes requests from the audience to create a Womble national anthem, Corrie as a dance track and 'Enders as reggae. Sitting alongside the second row, the feet tapping away showed that the audience were totally appreciative of this man’s amazing talents.

Finally we were taken to Merseyside via Essex with Tony Wood, Creative Director at Lime Pictures and creator of such shows as Hollyoaks and The Only Way is Essex. He demonstrated how a certain track can punctuate emotions more effectively than any dialogue. Nothing can instantly tell us how a character is feeling better than the soundtrack accompanying a scene. But how do you get the audience more involved in this? Enter the Daytona Lights, a talented 5 piece band discovered by Steve Levine and Tony Wood. A great way to introduce more engagement is to introduce an aspect viewers can interact with in and outside of the show. The band were introduced in Hollyoaks playing themselves acting out student life in the village while trying to make it as a band - in the real world they are also doing the latter. This new approach could pave the way for talented musicians to launch their future careers so watch this space.

There was one final surprise left for the audience - a live performance by the Daytona Lights. 5 tracks, 7 guitars, one foot operated tambourine and a lot of love in the room for the group. I’m sure there will be a few more people tuning into Hollyoaks this weekend…

To see more images from the evening, head over to our Facebook page – don’t forget to leave a comment!
Interested in finding out more about this sensory sensation? Head over to Wikipedia.