Do We Judge Music by Sight More Than Sound?

During the summer several interesting articles that deal with the conception of audibility vs. visibility have been presented by international media. It may seem counterintuitive, but an expert from University College London, concert pianist and psychologist Chia-Jung Tsay has brought forth a theory that general physical appeal and visual aspects of performance are more important than actual playing in the judgment of musical competitions. In fact, experts polled as part of this study were given three musical examples of just the contestants playing and were asked to evaluate. The experts chose a consensus winner from among the recordings as the best musical performance; however, in many cases, their choice was not the eventual winner of the competition. The author notes that inferior playing won the day by looking more passionate, skillful and composed. The author conducted six other experiments in addition to the experts listening to recordings. Nrp.org: How To Win That Music Compet

http://www.pianostreet.com/blog/articles/do-we-judge-music-by-sight-more-than-sound-6207/