ABSTRACT
Expertise research has to date focused on the type of expertise that is expressed in temporally extended, complex performances. However, there is a class of experts commonly referred to as connoisseurs whose expertise is not expressed in complex, temporally extended performances but in evaluative judgments. On the other hand, the quality of music can only be measured through an evaluative judgment. This chapter determines how musical expertise influences liking of music within and across styles. Liking ratings were regressed onto the complexity ratings for each group of listeners. Authors coded both novice and expert responses to the question of what makes one piece of music more or less likable than another. Furthermore, musical training does not lower the subjective complexity of jazz improvisations, but it changes the relationship between complexity and liking.
