Perceptions of improvements in piano performance following a Body Mapping workshop

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly popular for musicians to study Body Mapping, a method of body movement education, to improve both body movement and musical quality. In Body Mapping workshops, observers frequently claim that they can both see and hear improvements in the performance, yet previous research does not support this anecdotal evidence. In the present study, pianists received a full day Body Mapping workshop and a panel of judges, blind to condition, evaluated audio and silent video clips of performances recorded the day before and the day after the workshop. In Experiment 1, judges were able to identify the post-test recordings by silent video at a rate significantly better than chance, but not with audio alone. In Experiment 2, ratings of quality of body movement were significantly higher for post-test silent video recordings, but no such effect was observed with audio alone. The present findings suggest that there are visible but not audible changes to the pianists’ performance. We discuss visual dominance as a possible explanation for these findings.