Major Chords are Primary Colors...

2004 gootar - chords theory, By James C. Cranwell, 04/20/2004

red

orange

yellow

green

blue

indigo

violet

Seven Colors in a Rainbow

It is well known there are seven colors in a rainbow... Isaac Newton, a pioneer in the field of colour, passed a beam
of sunlight through a prism. When the light came out of the prism it was not white but was spread into rays
composed of seven different colours: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.
The spreading into rays was called dispersion by Newton and he called the different coloured rays the spectrum. He
learnt that when the light rays were passed again through a prism the rays turned back into white light. If only one
ray was passed through the prism it would come out the same colour as it went in. Newton concluded that white light
was made up of seven different coloured rays. They are just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum... the part
(frequencies) that are visible/discernable to the human eye. There are also a plethora of frequencies and colors in
between these seven colors and ones we can't see, for instance radio ways, ultra-violet and infra-red.
Notice the first, third and fifth colors are red, yellow and blue.

C
Root
E

D
Second
F#

E
Third
G#

F
Fourth
A

G
Fifth
B

A
Sixth
C#

B
Seventh
D#

Seven Notes in a Scale

Anyone delving into music theory knows there are seven notes in a musical scale. Using a C major scale and an E
major scale as examples we have the patterns noted above. The center section... Root, second, third, fourth, fifth,
sixth and seventh are the scale degrees relative to the root note (the root note can be any note). Chords are a
combination of three or more notes in a scale. Major chords are comprised of the Root, third and fifth notes of any
major scale. Major chords are the basis of all other chord structures.

There are also an abundance of other frequencies (tones/vibrations)

in the sound spectrum, but the notes in the scale will repeat themselves the further higher and lower you go up
and down in frequency. Notes of the same tone but different pitch are called octaves, for instance, "A-440" is an
abbreviation for the official government standard of musical pitch in the United States. Related to pianos, it means
that the strings for the "A" just above "middle C" should vibrate at 440 cycles per second. Higher and lower A's will
vibrate at 880 and 220 respectively. (notice the frequencies are equal divisors of each other... either double or half)
The light waves (electromagnectic spectrum) are also doing this, we just can't see the higher and lower
frequencies because unlike intermittent sounds, we are constantly being bombarded with light, radio and other
waves. If we could actually see all of them, it would probably appear as just a big soupy mess... an analogy using
sound would be like hitting all of the piano keys at the same time. I guess our brains just picked out a nice section of
the electromagnetic field (the scale of light) and made it visible. So, there are seven color frequencies and seven
sound frequencies used by our eyes and ears for sight, hearing, art, music, painting, song writing, etc.

The Color Wheel

A color circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first
circular diagram of colors in 1666. Since then scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous
variations of this concept. Differences of opinion about the validity of one format over another continue to provoke

debate. In reality, any color circle or color wheel which presents a logically arranged sequence of pure hues has
merit.

Primary Colors
Red, yellow and blue
In traditional color theory, these are
the 3 pigment colors that can not be
mixed or formed by any combination
of other colors. All other colors are
derived from these 3 hues

Secondary Colors
Green, orange and purple
These are the colors formed by
mixing the primary colors.

Tertiary Colors
Yellow-orange, red-orange,
red-purple, blue-purple, bluegreen and yellow-green.
These are the colors formed
by mixing one primary and
one secondary color

The mysterious correlation of light and sound.

The first, third and fifth colors of the rainbow are Primary colors... red, yellow and blue.
The first, third and fifth notes of a major scale is a Major chord... root, third and fifth.
Something quite amazing happens when we tie all of this information together (that's Physics, Optics, Light, Sight,
Sound, Hearing, Art, Music, Neuroscience) and line up the two groups of seven up together...

Primary Colors are Major Chords!

Red
Root

Orange
Second

Yellow
Third

Green
Fourth

Blue
Fifth

Indigo
Sixth

Violet
Seventh

If you could actually "hear" the extremely high frequencies the red, yellow and blue (primary color) light waves are
vibrating at... you would hear a Major chord.
If you could "see" the sound of notes in a major chord relative to the same "rainbow scale" used by light... you would
see notes and chords in primary color just like way they are used in the chord diagram program above.

Special thanks to Go
o
g
le for inadvertently making me think of this, and J.L. Morton

Harmonic Color Model

By Richard Merrick
Harmonic Visualization Models
Harmonic Interference Theory provides a foundation for the construction of geometric models for the
representation of music. Such models are helpful in cross-reference musical concepts with
phenomena elsewhere in nature, explaining otherwise difficult concepts using musical terminology.
The first thing to do in building a visual model for music is the creation of a color model compatible
with harmonic physics. This is done by recognizing that the frequency range of human vision is itself a
frequency-doubled octave beginning with dark magenta at 370 terahertz and increasing in frequency
up to dark violet at 740 terahertz.

Within this color octave, at 12-step logarithmic scale can be calculated by multiplying each successive
step by 21/2 just like an equal tempered musical scale. This yields the standard color wheel - all that
remains is to determine its Harmonic Center.
This can be done using the same method described for finding the Harmonic Center of a musical
octave. We need only balance the 7 colors of the rainbow around the only symmetrical center possible
in the color wheel - namely, the dark blue color known as Indigo. In this way, Indigo and YellowOrange form a polar Harmonic Axis of symmetry in the color wheel, enabling the relative assignment
of each tone in a musical octave to be assigned a color starting with the Harmonic Center of the key.
This should not be taken as an absolute assignment to specific tones, but instead as a color mapping
that is moveable and applied to any diatonic key.
The symmetry of this color-tone mapping becomes apparent when the 12-step color wheel is divided
into two rings of six each and aligned with a piano keyboard relative to the key of C major (or A
relative minor) having Harmonic Center D.

This creates what we might call a diatonic rainbow where Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colors
balance perfectly around the Harmonic Axis {D, G#) in the key of C.