After procrastinating over this for a few years, I've finally put together a first version of a mapping for the colours I typically associate with each pitch - one of the key elements for the music visualisations I've always wanted to generate for all the music I've been writing + recording over the past few years.
This is actually my second attempt at putting together such a chart. The first one (which I can't seem to find right now) was only partially complete, as at the time, I kept struggling over whether I'd picked the perfectly calibrated shades for each, which then meant I never got the basics down.
So without further ado, here's a rough chart:
(Disclaimer: I wanted to clean it up more, but Musescore doesn't let me easily insert/delete excess notes in the middle of a line without re-entering the notes and then losing the colours. So... meh!)
I put this together as follows:
1) I first focussed on the ones that knew for sure first (i.e. basically the following, in the following order - G4, A4, B4, G3, A3, B3, E4, F4, F5, G5, C6).
In particular, the ones I am most sure of are the "G, A, B" ones:
* "G" is always a shade of Green, "A" is always a shade of "Red", and "B" is always a shade of "Blue"
* "G4" in particular is a lush "lawn/grass green" that can reach into "Secret of Kells - green forest" green as it resonates. (Speaking or resonating, on my violins, it's usually the single most resonant note on the whole instrument, which is probably why I associate it with this kind of lush + vibrant characteristic). You'll also often hear me referring to pieces rooted on this "G4" note (often as the home note of the main / initial melodic line, or maybe as the base substrate on which everything else is added) as "healing green" as a result (e.g. first piece from here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NruraiwRd0Q)
* "A4" is a sharp, piercing, and "pure red" tone - so naturally we go for #ff0000
(NOTE: Apparently, after over a decade away from regularly tuning to A440 to play as part of ensembles, it seems I've naturally settled back on ~A432 as it just naturally sounds "more right". That colour is a slightly dimmer / less sharp + pointed "A" - so probably closer to #de0f0b (?). Main downsides are that I can't easily overlay my track with other instruments, and also that when transcribing musical ideas, my initial notes often end up sounding a good 2nd - 3rd higher than they do in my mind - IIRC this was a problem that I had as a kid trying to transcribe the Titanic theme tune too back in the day ;)
* "G3" and "A3" are basically richer / darker versions of those G4/A4 colours (i.e. as "lower")
2) Then filled in everything else.
* Particular challenges were what to do with "D" and "E" notes - as you can see, they don't exactly have any consistent colours assigned to them - I often use either one.
* With the higher E's (e.g. E5, E6), those are actually not pure "solid colour" like the rest, but are actually more like shiny glass/diamond crystals.
* You'll also see the "C" is a bit of a challenge - e.g. "C5" on A vs D strings has a *drastically* different timbre, with the A-string lower position C being more abrasive (so "yellow") whereas 3rd-position D-string is warmer (so "peach"). However, middle "C" is from a different family and ends up "middle / boring grey"
Other notes:
* Anything below "G3" I actually have trouble distinguishing (as I'm a violinist! Hence, high school aural dictation/transcription was hellish when doing bass parts :P ) - So, they all actually end up dark coloured - near black but not quite black (to emphasize that there is colour there, but it's indistinct and just "deep"). I haven't figured out what they are like, so have left them blank
* Above that high A, it's hard to actually tell what the notes are, so I won't actually be colouring them. Hence, no pitch colours there either!
* Also, there are a few gaps in between for accidentals. Most likely they will end up darker/lighter versions of the base pitches...
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