Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which one sense, such as hearing, is simultaneously and automatically perceived as if by one or more additional senses, such as sight. It can involve any of the senses.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Several famous composers and musicians, including Franz Liszt, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Duke Ellington, were synesthetes.
"I have only met one other person who responds to music the same way," says Jack Heath.
"But there are some famous people - Billy Joel sees music in the same way, and so does the lead singer of a band named Tool [Maynard James Keenan]. It seems quite a rare thing.
"I think it adds another level. I've never been able to just listen to something and experience it as sound, it's always been an experience that I have related to on a deeper level.
"It makes it a lot more full on, makes you pay more attention to the music."
Jack has taught himself to memorise his mental images of individual notes, which helps him learn and remember musical pieces.
"If someone played middle C on piano I would visualise it as this blue, round object, but then a D-sharp would be yellow, so I can memorise them like that.
"If someone plays something I can tell you what note it is. It took a while to learn to do that but I've got the hang of it now."
It's not just music that Jack responds to in this way, but all sound.
"If something goes 'bang' while I'm walking down the road I sort of see it in a really weird squiggle of lines," he says.
Jack says this ability affects how he plays and listens to music.
"A lot of [Johann Sebastian] Bach music looks really pretty. Like Air on a G-String is a really pretty yellow with lines streaking through it.
"It's quite hard to explain. "
