Hi! My name is Denis Starov. Welcome to my visual music classroom! From early childhood, I've been fortunate to excel in various fields – from devouring encyclopaedias to participating in academic competitions across different subjects. This multifaceted curiosity led me to study chemical engineering at Mendeleev University and acquire multitude of skills and crafts from photography and web-design to woodworking and TIG welding. That was just the beginning.
Even while working as a chemical engineer, I was deeply immersed in various aspects of design – creating logos and brand books, developing websites, and programming interfaces. Photography, video production, and vector graphics always were my creative outlets. As a visual thinker, I primarily explore and express myself through color, rhythm, proportions, and nuances of the form.
About twelve years ago, I was at my friends a rehearsal studio session, and the drummer couldn't come so I found myself for first time sitting behind a real drum kit. Something clicked – rhythms started flowing, and soon I was playing in the band on a regular basis. But the journey wasn't instant; it took years of practice with an electronic drum set at home and drum sticks always in my hands to play those rhythms smoothly and with the groove. This experience opened up the fascinating world of music and the joy of jamming with others, especially that experience of the deep dialogue between the drummer and the bassist that drives the rhythm section forward.
In a couple of years that first band eventually came to an end, and I proceeded to explore other instruments – djembe, cajon, harmonica, recorder. But I had hit a wall while trying to understand the notes guitarists and vocalists were playing. Traditional solfeggio lessons and memorizing scales weren't enough – my ear alone couldn't grasp it all, and the 18th-century notation system wasn't providing the support I needed. That's when I had my realization moment with the piano. I realized how challenging it was to recognize and memorize scales and chords just by looking at the keyboard. Improvisation seemed accessible only through extensive practice and muscle memory. The rules for building chords and scales remained the same regardless of the root note – surely there had to be a more intuitive way to visualize this?
Drawing on my background in chemistry and design, I understood both the physics of electromagnetic radiation and the principles of the color wheel. This knowledge helped me discover fascinating connections between the color spectrum and musical octaves. What started as simple highlighted key diagrams evolved into a complete design system when I added colors. The first real breakthrough came when I designed and printed vinyl stickers for my synthesizer keyboard along. Suddenly, I could instantly recognize each note, and finding any scale or chord became intuitive using the A5 cheat-sheets with all the diatonic scales in color on them. I found myself happily improvising in Eb Lydian as easily as C Major – it was transformative! That's when I knew I had to share this discovery with others.
Today, Chromatone has grown into a comprehensive educational system with over 50 interactive web applications. Anyone can start exploring music theory through visual connections using just a web browser on any device. A laptop keyboard is enough to begin making music, and a MIDI controller can be a great addition – all possible within a $0-100 budget. Try opening our Spectrogram app to see the colors of live sound through real-time frequency analysis, or play with the flower logo on our main page to explore chord shapes and the relationships between all 12 notes and colors. These tools are designed to build musical intuition through experience, often requiring minimal explanation.
I'm convinced that, first, humans can learn throughout their entire lives, getting better and better at learning itself, and second – we can transfer skills and understanding from one field to another, making it easier to explore new areas of knowledge, even if not always with equal success. Everyone has music brewing inside them, formed from everything we've heard and experienced. While creating new musical ideas traditionally requires either years of practice or deep theory knowledge (ideally both), Chromatone offers a third path – one that makes music theory visually intuitive and immediately applicable. The success of over 200 students who have completed our courses and composed their own songs proves this approach works.
What started as my personal solution has grown into an international educational tool. We create instrument overlays, design reference materials, and maintain an open online platform filled with audiovisual experiments. I believe the journey of musical discovery is endless, with always something new to try and explore. I'm excited to show you how combining visual thinking with music can unlock your creative potential in ways you might never have imagined. Let's learn how to see music in a new light!