If anyone's misled by my input then they're reading me incompletely, because I think I've been pretty clear. I've already said that effort is part of the learning process, but when you discover the relaxed embouchure, you realize that all that previous effort and development curiously bears no discernible relationship to it. I don't think that there's any way for most people to go through the process without the preliminary effort part - and without a teacher, it's going to take most people a lot more than 1.5 years to get there. I'm not advocating that developing fluters stop their efforts at muscular development; I think it's an impossible proposition at any rate, because from the outset we can't normally conceive of any other way, so you might as well run with it, and it can serve you well, so if that's what you want to stick with, you're in good company. What I am doing, however, is assuring the reader that the relaxed embouchure is real, it is a possibility available to everyone, and it is worth pursuing, for by it you abandon effort, not habituate to it. There's quite a difference between the two, and I'm not deceived about this. It's not something you can force; you sort of fall into it, and when you do, you realize it's no mistake, but an improvement that serves you better than anything that came before it. Instead of work, it's a pleasure every time.PB+J wrote:I think some of these comments are slightly misleading, not intentionally. It takes muscular development: there's just no way around that. ... So a beginner on the flute--me, about 1.5 years in--has to develop those muscles and develop them to the point where it doesn't feel like work anymore.
I think that effort and intentional development may serve to prepare the way toward the relaxed embouchure, but I can't say how this works, because since it means you end up abandoning all that, the equation is too subtle for me to follow. Perhaps it establishes certain patterns, but again, once I had the relaxed embouchure, all the previous methods went completely out the window because they were no longer relevant in any degree, so I can't say for sure what the connection is. But by all indications, you can't get there without making the effort anyway - unless you're a preternatural genius, of course.