Nothing in music is random. And that’s why it’s so easy to learn. Patterns like the chromatic scale, the major scale, and the circle of fifths are all very simple. And because each pattern leads to the next, they’re also totally predictable. In fact, no one is throwing us any curveballs here … the science of sound is basic.

So it makes sense that color follows these same patterns. Like music, color is simple and organized. And like the circle of fifths, the color wheel naturally progresses from one tone to the next.

But Color Music really comes alive when you rearrange these notes back into the chromatic scale. After all, that’s the pattern you really use in music. The way notes are laid out on any instrument.

And to get from the circle of fifths to the chromatic scale, you just have to rearrange a few notes. It works like this:

Take all the square notes that are spaced at whole-step intervals and rotate them so that each pair of complements trades places. That is, just make red and green switch places … and orange and blue … and yellow and purple. And just like that, we can suddenly see every note in music. So the color wheel has been turned back into the chromatic scale.

Of course, this new color pattern looks a little strange at first … because each color in the chromatic scale is out of place. But once we apply it to the piano keyboard, it starts to make sense.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. This color pattern just looks weird. And honestly, you’d be half right. But look at it this way … if you had always been blind and then suddenly got your eyesight, the world would look pretty different. Sure, you may have heard about trees … and clouds … and cars … and people. But all of it would be new if you were seeing it for the first time.

And that’s exactly what Color Music is like. It may look totally new. But it makes huge sense … fast. We just have to look at those two basic intervals in music: half-steps and whole-steps.