Senior Lana Dauw has a rare neurological condition that affects her senses called synesthesia. According to Cleveland Clinic, there are many subtypes of synesthesia, Dauw has chromesthesia or Sound-color synesthesia, a form that converts sound to color.
Hearing notes causes her to see colors in her mind. But it’s not truly like seeing, According to Psychology Today, synesthesia is more so an immediate and subconscious correlation between certain stimulations, in Dauw’s case, it’s notes and hues.
“That’s how I figured out that I had perfect pitch because I had a specific color that I kept hearing. Actually, the first song I figured it out to was “Hammer to Fall” by Queen and it was weird because I kept seeing this bright red-ish pink color. Then, I pressed a note on my keyboard in my room and I was like ‘That was weird,'” Dauw said.
Dauw said that this subconscious association has boosted her perfect pitch and has influenced her to pursue a music career. She was a Drum Major in Lancer Regiment and plans on majoring in some form of music in college, although she is currently unsure of what specific major.
However, Dauw said people would often be skeptical about her condition and assume she was lying. Some of her friends have questioned her condition but Dauw isn’t upset about this, as she understands why some people may be cautious about the idea of synesthesia.
“It’s just one of those [things] where you just have to trust that someone does have it,” Dauw said.
Dauw’s condition has led her to favor certain chords over others. She’s much more sensitive to the tones of some chords, which leads her to try and avoid them.
“My favorites are probably D major sus 2 or 4, or a good C minor chord. The colors are so cool and warm all at once. Some keys I feel as if I could play [in] them all day and some have limited amounts of tolerance for me. I don’t think I could play in A minor, or certainly not B minor all day, purely because the chords are all very stingy.” She said.
Dauw has also experienced physical symptoms of being overwhelmed with sound.
“I have a lot of physiological reactions where my ears will hurt. The most common thing that happens once or twice a week is if there’s too much of something or too much color, I get really bad headaches, more towards my eyes, or by my ears specifically.” Dauw said.
Her synesthesia does make her very sensitive to sounds, as hearing a lot of sounds not only overwhelms her ears, but her mind, which causes band performances and loud areas to be overwhelming.
“In the past couple of years as I’ve started to figure out, obviously with growing more and also being more indulgent in music, you have a little bit of a downside to having perfect pitch and synesthesia,” She said
However, she has combated this by using specially molded noise-canceling earbuds during loud events or band performances. She can also listen to chords and chord progressions she likes to lessen her reaction and calm herself down.
“Synesthesia is so great because I love playing music already and it’s just another little icing on top of the cake, but it’s an icing on top of a very difficult cake,” Dauw said
