Just curious: Are there some flutes that have a more forgiving embochure? Or do smaller holes make some flutes easier to play? Or maybe its just practice. In any case, I picked up a friends Delrin flute and found it so much easier to play then any I’ve owned.
I’d go with “yes” to all three…
if including the third one doesn’t cause too much consternation 
The thing I’ve found, as a learner on flute, is that the less forgiving embouchure holes, which used to drive me nutes, are the ones that are starting to give me the most pleasure when playing the flute. I’m particularly enjoying playing my old Rudall with its Chris Wilkes head. Beautiful, it is.
off topic 
'at’s next year, eh 
Most people seem to like Pat Olwell’s flutes and find them easy to play. Worth a try
I had an Arie De Keyser for about 4 years and was never happy with the tone I got from it. After a couple of years of playing my Cotter, I went back to the De Keyser one day and found I could play it much better than I could have done previously. A bit of that was undoubtedly down to having practiced a lot more, but I think the Cotter’s embouchure just sharpened my muscles up that extra bit.
m.d.
I will agree that some embouchures are easier to blow than others, but not necessarily based on size. The smaller the embouchure, the more focused the stream of air needs to be, which requires stronger lips. My soprano renaissance flute, with it’s tiny 8 mm. blow hole is my most challenging flute to play.
Pat Olwell’s flutes are well known for their ease of playing, and I have enjoyed mine very much for years now. I recently moved to an keyed Morvan flute, and found the embouchure much less forgiving, and much more difficult to play. At first. Once I figured it out, I discovered a whole new sound and approach to my playing. Like emmdee, I find it has strengthened my lips muscles and made me a better player (even when I switch back to the Olwell).
Consider whether getting off the ground quickly is more important to you than the long range goals. Something that is “easy” for the beginning player may not be the best as you develop proficiency.
G
I’m impatient and have yet to stick with a flute that I couldn’t play well within a month or less.
I have found Casey Burns, Olwell, and McGee flutes to be the most accessible for me. Also, I find I don’t have the knack for Rudall style flutes (i.e. I personally find them harder to play), so I tend to play more hybrid/Pratten type flutes.
I am not an expert at simple system flutes. I wonder how much my Boehm flute beginnings still affect my approach to Irish fluting.
It’s funny you should say this, Galfrex
Pat Olwell’s flutes are well known for their ease of playing
I got myself onto Pat’s waiting list in 2006 because I’d been told by various people whose opinions I respected, that his flutes were very well made, great workmanship and key work, great intonation. They never said anything about being easier to play than Brand X flutes. Since I’ve been waiting, I’ve heard so much about them being easier to play, easier to fill, etc… If they can tick the boxes of being easier (not necessarily EASY) to fill and have a great breadth of tone, then I’ll be one happy bunny.
m.d.
Just to add to the pile, I will agree that Olwell flutes are very easy to blow. That does, however, cut both ways.
The lads make the most responsive embouchure cut I’ve ever played on. You can coax just about any tone out of it you’d like to using your own technique. You can even get a sound out of the flute using no technique at all, which is the rub. They’re so easy to blow that it’s possible to be extremely lazy, which is not a great strategy for anyone but is especially thorny for beginners. If you don’t have to work much to get an acceptable sound, you might choose to be satisfied with less than what the flute (and you) can actually do.
By all means get the Olwell flute, but make sure you hear someone put it through its paces and fix that sound in your mind. I for one love to take my flute up to the Olwell shop to hear Aaron and Patrick have a go on it, no better men for getting a cracking tone. I also try to spend some time every now and then practicing on a flute with an old-style headjoint and embouchure cut, just to compel myself to focus down that airstream. I’ve also learned to recognize the sound of myself being lazy, and have a few little tests to make sure I come back to the true faith.
Cheers,
Rob
Some very constructive words, Rob.
m.d.
Every person and every flute is a bit different. My Olwell Nicholson is a very nice flute in every way, but I don’t find it as “forgiving” as my McGee 5088, a Doyle, or a Copley. Part of that is undoubtedly that I’m not nearly as good a player as some of the other responders. But play I do and I’d say my Copley delrin is probably the easiest flute I’ve ever played and so I wouldn’t be suprised if that’s the one you tried out.
I agree with Rob. I hear Olwells around me being played at a tiny fraction of their potential, and I surmise that this is because it’s easy to get an OK sound. Getting a great sound always takes time.
I also play a Morvan as my main flute, and agree that it’s not so accessible as some other flutes, but that once one finds how to unlock the potential it’s amazing.
I am very likely slow, but I usually find that it takes me a long time (months) to really make a flute sing. I realize now that I gave up on some fine flutes way too early when I didn’t have the chops. I have heard 2 famous flute players argue for the benefits of playing unforgiving flutes for the purpose of developing a good embouchure. For those of us not playing many hours a day, there’s an argument for forgiving flutes to get off the ground, keeping Rob’s comments in mind.
Hugh
Some of Patrick’s “Nicholson” flutes are actually somewhere between a Nicholson and a Pratten. My own #473 came with a wide foot and plays very Pratten-y when so equipped. I have a second, tighter foot joint which more or less lives on the flute now and makes it more Rudallesque in both play and sound, and more forgiving.
This brings up the point that it isn’t only the embouchure cut that makes a flute forgiving. In fairness, that was part of the OP’s question, which I previously ignored alas. The answer is an emphatic yes that what the headjoint is connected to has everything to do with how forgiving the flute plays. That said, the player’s embouchure/blow hole connection is the driver of the whole yoke, so that’s the first principle involved.
Swapping headjoints (not always possible/advisable!) is about the only way to separate the two issues and do any kind of relevant comparison, as a flute is a complex system. Meta-comparisons, trying loads of flutes from one maker and comparing with loads of flutes from other makers, do help to form a general opinion of each maker’s work.
Rob
Thanks for all the replies. I see that it may just be a matter of finding the right combination of lip tightness, shape of mouth etc. to get it right. I know there’s a lot of posts on that so I will do some research.
read less & play more 
Like many things the words are inadequate and do not properly reflect your personal experience.
Rob, thanks for the information about the Olwell footjoints–something I did’nt know. I do know that when I went to pick up my flute from Patrick I took two other maker’s flutes with me. One I thought was pretty good but I had a question about the key placement. The other (by someone I have not mentioned) I did not care for. I went to the bathroom (outside) and left the two flutes. When I came back, he was playing the keyed one and said “not bad!” He never said a word about the other one which told me what I wanted to know without coming out and asking him directly. One interesting thing was the one thing he looked at immediately was the width of the footjoint openings on both flutes. That fits in with what your comment that he has varied that end of things and I guess he’s done quite a bit of testing of the effect of doing so. All the best, Steve