I was watching youtube and I saw two videos. One was James Galway giving a masterclass on tone and embochure. And the next was Nina Perlove giving a video on embochure and tone.

They both gave very conflicting information. Nina Perlove said to roll the flute way out. And when she said this, I got the impression that you do not cover a lot of the embochure hole. My private teacher also gave me this advice. But then
James Galway said that you cover a lot of the embochure hole and you blow straight into the flute. And this made me rethink everything just because it is James Galway.

Can you guys please give me your advice on the two styles of playing?

<<Thu Mar 5, 2009 10:06 pm
Re: Jean-Pierre Rampal--embouchure hole / covering

Dear Roger,

There are many professional flutists who cover more than half the hole.
Sadly there are a lot of teachers who insist on the uncovering of the hole and
the results are not good. You would think with the lack of success they would
try something else. We have teachers like this in Europe too. Some of them are
quite well known.

I think your best approach is to experiment and see where you get with it.

Best wishes,
Sir James,
On tour,
Houston.
USA>>

Above is what Sir James Galway wrote on Thu Mar 5, 2009 10:06 pm in his Yahoo Galway Flute Chart List....you can check it if have doubt....

"They both gave very conflicting information. Nina Perlove said to roll the flute way out. And when she said this, I got the impression that you do not cover a lot of the embochure hole. My private teacher also gave me this advice. But then
James Galway said that you cover a lot of the embochure hole and you blow straight into the flute. And this made me rethink everything just because it is James Galway.

Can you guys please give me your advice on the two styles of playing?"

I have been asking this exact same question for years now to all my teachers and to all the masters in the world when they visit us and give us masterclasses or private lessons. Trust me, everyone has extreme answers, like roll-in more, or roll-out more!!!

Until recently, I changed a new teacher who is an European professional ex-principal flutist and has had the same teacher as Pahud(Berlin Phil), this teacher told me, we shouldn't roll-out too much and also shouldn't roll-in too much. Be moderate!

If you roll-out too much, it's harder for you to focus your air-stream to hit the sound-producing point in the hole, your air-pressure also reduces, your tone will become weak and airy(as the air spreaded out)!

If you roll-in too much, it's easier to play, easier to blow, fuller tone, less pressure needed, and very very easy to produce good vibratos, and especially unable to crack notes, BUT your tone will become very very stuffy, boring and too 'round'...(But some music are using this way to produce very round sounds).

<Added>

also, Everyone has different lips, fat or thin or in the middle, also there many different way of producing embouchures, so one must not use only one method to teach all the students.

Sir Galway said it best:

"I think your best approach is to experiment and see where you get with it."

I see, thanks!

Some players, because of a quite relaxed embouchure, and perhaps thicker lips, have a longer windway from behind the lips to the front of them.

The differences in the lips of various players can be quite pronounced, so I agree with this thought. I suspect it's very much like the difference between a pistol and a rifle; the longer barrel on a rifle is more accurate at long distances, so players with thicker lips may indeed need to roll out a bit more than others so that their airstream is not TOO concentrated.

Each player has a slightly different concept of the sound they want and rolling in/out is one way (among others) to influence the ultimate sound the player wants to achieve. And even then, that can vary from day-to-day, piece-to-piece, movement-to-movement, or even measure-to-measure when the composer's intent and the player's interpretation are considered.