We hear with our ears, right? Yes, but scientists have known for years that we also hear with our eyes. In a landmark study published in 1976, researchers found that people integrated both auditory cues and visual ones, like mouth and face movements, when they heard speech.

That study, and many that followed, raised this fundamental question about speech perception: If humans can integrate different sensory cues, do they do so through experience (through seeing countless speaking faces over time), or has evolution hard-wired them to do it?

A new study that looks at a different set of sensory cues adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests such integration is innate. In a paper in Nature, Bryan Gick and Donald Derrick of the University of British Columbia report that people can hear with their skin.
...
“What’s so persuasive about this particular effect,” he added, “is that people are picking up on this information that they don’t know they are using.” That supports the idea that integrating different sensory cues is innate.
... “we are these fantastic perception machines that take in all the information available to us and integrate it seamlessly.”

.....researchers found that people integrated both auditory cues and visual ones, like mouth and face movements, when they heard speech.

That explains why a harsh touch causes the performer to hear a harsh sound.

Some judges at competitions seem to hear through their eyes. Yes, yes, I like competitions, and I don't want to get into that one here, but at a recent one my son's teacher truly enjoyed ripping up (shredding, actually) one judge's comments and criticisms that were based largely on wanting him to move and emote more with physical body motions.

(the other judge suffered no such issues, however. She was quite content to use her ears and read the score.)

"Touch" on one isolated note doesn't exist,

You miss the point of this thread. What the performer's finger feels is added into the mix which his/her brain calls sound (as Andromaque points out). So yes - harsh touch, harsh sound.

In a paper in Nature, Bryan Gick and Donald Derrick of the University of British Columbia report that people can hear with their skin.

The point is it is not physics but neurophysiology. In the brain the feel (+ other senses) is added to the ear's signal to create the sound experienced. They can't be separated.

By the way , how was your meeting with the Chief of Anatomy at King's College?

As he's a friend of yours maybe you could set it up? I'm only responding here to the OP's reference.

That explains why a harsh touch causes the performer to hear a harsh sound.

inadvertent post.

Will do. And by the way it's Steve Keyboardklutz.