Signed Music is ... "wholly autonomous from the auditory experience. While it is pleasing to the eyes, just as conventional music pleases the ears, it has parameters that are completely different from musical forms hearing audiences are used to, such as audible pitch. Specifically, a high quality music performance (without words) includes handshape variatons along with unique movements like circles, motioning up-and-down, back-and-forth, or to-and-fro representing possible notes. Some performances also include lyric or words in American Sign Language".
- Cripps, Rosenblum, Small, & Supalla, 2017, p. 4