The existence of music performances rooted in American Sign Language (ASL) and deaf culture indicates that music is not exclusive to the audible domain. Terminologies such as “deaf music” and “visual music” as used in the literature are subject to discussion and clarification. Theory, roles of language, culture, and music and their relationships to each other become important for exploratory investigation regarding what music means to deaf people. As a result, signed music is the term deemed most appropriate to define the original lyric and/or non-lyric musical performances done by native deaf signers. This is different from English-to-ASL translation of songs that may be a common practice at present. Unlike translated songs, signed music performances are originally developed within the signed modality. Signed music frequently includes deaf experiences and is fully accessible. A review of a study on the work of two deaf

performers demonstrates how signed music constitutes a unique form of performance art, yet shares elements that are common to music in general. This paper is intended to generate a greater interest among scholars and researchers on the topic of signed music, and expand the scope of signed language performance art.