air speed

When you exhale with a small embouchure opening, air pressure builds inside the mouth. Air pressure increases even more as you increase the speed of your air and/or narrow your embouchure opening. In the low register, the air speed should generally be fast and a bit loose feeling with a horizontal thin embouchure. In the high register, the air should feel energized and compressed, with a rounded embouchure opening. It is the air pressure inside your mouth that determines the air speed that strikes your flute’s embouchure plate. This air speed is similar to the experience of gradually releasing air from a balloon by stretching the opening. You can practice variations in air speed by blowing warm air through various sizes of straws. As you blow through smaller straws, you should feel an expansion in the ribs. This is the feeling of Appoggio.