RE: do you imagine pictures while playing?

["MIKO" <m-i-k-o@attbi.com>]

It's called synesthesia and I experienced it when I was in college.  I was
rubbing a blanket and could see stripes of light that moved and lengthened
on concert (so to speak) with my fingers as they slid along the blanket.

-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Cox [mailto:bickleypunk@pdq.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 5:40 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: do you imagine pictures while playing?


This is an interesting topic.

Not that I'm a big fan of LSD (anymore, at least!)...
Still, I have experienced, and then read observations from a wide variety 
of
sources, that sound can often manifest itself as shapes and colors while
under the influence of a hallucinogen.  I have often wondered if this is
some chemical effect of the drug, or if it is simply a heightened
sensitivity to something that's always there - a basic relationship in the
human mind between sound and shape.

I'm also reminded of a Peter Gabriel lyric, from "Humdrum", on the 1st solo
album:
"Lost among echoes of things not there
Watching the sounds forming shapes in the air"

Doug

PS - gotta go get that PG "Up" CD soon!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Wyatt" <stuart@solostring.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 3:33 PM
Subject: Re: do you imagine pictures while playing?


>
> > Strange, I never managed to imagine picture and sound simultaneously.
>
> I sometimes do if I am in a trance-like state - it is very much like
> what you get if you are in a deep meditative state (helped with yoga) or
> take the easy option and cheat and use natural herbal substances. They
> are visions, just like day dreaming. The Place des Vosges improvisations
> were all recorded whilst in this state (natural, and herbal)... I can
> picture people, places, scents, touch....
>
> Alas, it does not happen as much as it used to...
>
> Lately, I have been feeling a kind of musical schizophrenia whereby it
> feels as though there are a number of performers inside me. The
> spiritual side of me believes that at times, my body is acting as a
> medium for dead musicians whereas my analitical mind just assumes that I
> am a natural headchase and am just playing things that I have
> subconciously heard or worked out beforehand. I play in styles I have
> never studied or have played before... to this day, I dont know where
> they are coming from.
>
> Its a bizarre sensation... feeling away from your physical body and
> conducting your own small string orchestra....
>
> Its great, as they work for free, dont have drinking problems and rarely
> argue with each other. :)
>
> --
> Stuart Wyatt - Solo String Project
> http://www.solostring.com
> stuart@solostring.com
>