The Effect of Lip Balm Type on the Amount of Time Taken to Recenter on a Note During a Brass Instrument Slur

Scott Dillon

School Name

Spring Valley High School

Grade Level

10th Grade

Presentation Topic

Physics

Presentation Type

Non-Mentored

Abstract

Brass musicians rely on the lips to produce sounds and achieve note transitions in music. When these musicians experience dry lips, they must resort to lip balm. This research intended to determine the most practical lip balm for brass musicians by measuring the amount of time taken to recenter on a note during a slur. It was hypothesized that ChopSaver lip balm would cause the lips to most quickly center the next note. A brass musician applied a comfortable amount of each lip balm and played a slur for each. These slur recordings were analyzed to determine the amount of time taken to recenter the next note. The percent change from the control was calculated for each amount of time with the outliers excluded. The histograms showed that the data was skewed right for each lip balm, and the boxplots showed that ChapStick had the lowest values for the maximum, quarter 3, and quarter 1. The sample means showed ChapStick with the only negative percent (less time taken), while the medians showed Burt's Bees and Softlips with the lowest at 0%. A one-way ANOVA test (F(3, 235) = 2.60, p = .05) showed that there was a significant difference between the means. The Scheffe test showed that this difference was present between all of the lip balms. The Scheffe F values with ChapStick involved resulted in the greatest differences. After weighing the results, there was evidence to support that ChapStick allows the lips to slur the most quickly.

Location

Furman Hall 127

Start Date

3-28-2020 9:15 AM

Presentation Format

Oral and Written

Group Project

No

COinS
 
Mar 28th, 9:15 AM

The Effect of Lip Balm Type on the Amount of Time Taken to Recenter on a Note During a Brass Instrument Slur

Furman Hall 127

Brass musicians rely on the lips to produce sounds and achieve note transitions in music. When these musicians experience dry lips, they must resort to lip balm. This research intended to determine the most practical lip balm for brass musicians by measuring the amount of time taken to recenter on a note during a slur. It was hypothesized that ChopSaver lip balm would cause the lips to most quickly center the next note. A brass musician applied a comfortable amount of each lip balm and played a slur for each. These slur recordings were analyzed to determine the amount of time taken to recenter the next note. The percent change from the control was calculated for each amount of time with the outliers excluded. The histograms showed that the data was skewed right for each lip balm, and the boxplots showed that ChapStick had the lowest values for the maximum, quarter 3, and quarter 1. The sample means showed ChapStick with the only negative percent (less time taken), while the medians showed Burt's Bees and Softlips with the lowest at 0%. A one-way ANOVA test (F(3, 235) = 2.60, p = .05) showed that there was a significant difference between the means. The Scheffe test showed that this difference was present between all of the lip balms. The Scheffe F values with ChapStick involved resulted in the greatest differences. After weighing the results, there was evidence to support that ChapStick allows the lips to slur the most quickly.