I suppose the words "effort required" are okay, because finding an optimal embouchure is often a matter of dogged persistence wherein developing fluteplayers typically spend a lot of time, with their mouth muscles behaving as if they're power-lifting, in the search for Right Embouchure. The irony is that when you do find it, it's practically effortless, and you wonder why you went to all that face muscle effort for such a simple thing as positioning; after all, how does doing the wrong thing get you to the right thing? It doesn't, at least directly. But I think the struggling is somehow still an inevitable and necessary part of the overall learning process, even though the light of a good embouchure will seem to bear no relationship to the darkness of what was going in in earlier efforts. I think it's fair to regard the successful embouchure hunter's efforts as a process of elimination, because while good embouchure can be very precise, it doesn't require great effort, so if you're lacking for a sense of direction, this one cannot fail you: If it ain't pleasurably easy in all things, keep looking.klandfors wrote:...apart from what has already been said above about the effort required to develop the embouchure.
I would absolutely look to the embouchure for that, because so long as you have a good flute in good order, embouchure's the only answer. Once you really start nailing it, you will be surprised at how little air it takes to play, and even play loudly. It's all in the mouth/jaw/lips positioning, and in leaving pressure supply to the abdomen - IOW the right feeling isn't one of blowing into the flute, but of breathing into it. Someone once said that playing a flute shouldn't take much more air than what you expend while speaking normally, which sounds utterly counterintuitive, but wouldn't you know it: the day came when I found it to be true.klandfors wrote:In my experience, it takes a bit more breath to keep my flute resonating than my whistle did. That may just be because my embouchure is poor.
Something to look forward to, isn't it.