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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
"Mush mouth" during live performances?
"Mush mouth" during live performances?
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Rustys26
88 posts
Jul 01, 2026
4:55 PM
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Hi all,
Brief background...I've been playing for about 20 years and doing live performances with a blues guitarist for about 8 years. When I started playing live, I started getting this new phenomenon that I call "mush mouth", where my cheek, jaw, and lip muscles get a sort of cramped feeling and I lose a ton of precision and control.
When playing live, we are just a blues duo and so I'm typically playing throughout entire songs for roughly 40min sets, usually 3-4 sets. I figured, even when practicing I'm not playing NON-STOP for 40mins at a time....so I just need to get some muscle building.....but this is still an issue with me at live performances even 8 years later....and it can even happen when we open up for a band with a single 20-30min set. So I'm starting to think it has more to do with nerves (something I still have issues with....even though I get tons of positive feedback from crowd). This NEVER happens when I'm at home alone. Recently, I recorded a few clips of myself to send to a fellow musician friend that I respect musically, and found "mush mouth" was occurring, after just a few mins....so I'm more convinced than ever that it is a nervousness thing and not a fatigue issue.
Does anyone else have a similar issue? Any solutions or mitigating measures? Would really appreciate any feedback.
Cheers
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dougharps
2396 posts
Jul 02, 2026
2:48 PM
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I can recall a few times I experienced this, mainly decades ago when I started playing in front of people. At the time I thought I just needed to build embouchure strength for extended playing. I had played clarinet as a youth and recalled that struggle.
On later reflection I think it was a symptom of stage anxiety leading me to overly tense up facial muscles. A relaxed embouchure is the best harmonica technique.
I mainly played "lip pursing" at that time and now use a mixed approach for octaves, slaps, and double stops, but I have not fully embraced tongue blocking for single notes. Tongue blocking seems inherently more relaxed. To me it would seem that the pursed lips approach might be more susceptible to tensing up than tongue blocking.
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Doug S.
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Rustys26
89 posts
Jul 02, 2026
9:51 PM
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Thanks, Doug! Indeed I do get nervous, and indeed I do play lip purse about 80% of the time. Maybe it is time to bite the bullet and really dive head first into tongue blocking as my primary method. The tensing definitely affects my ability in pucker playing...and when it happens I fall back to more tongue blocking as a 'relief'.
More importantly, I guess I just need to work on my anxiety. I'm certainly a lot better with it now compared to when I started...but it seems the only times I can fully relax is when we play dive bars with a bunch of dancing drunkards!
Thanks for the insights!
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dougharps
2398 posts
Jul 03, 2026
10:18 AM
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One factor I neglected to mention:
As a pucker player in years past I noticed that at times I was forcing bends with my mouth rather than dropping my jaw. Tongue blocking requires that you drop your jaw while bending. Forcing bends with your mouth tenses facial muscles.
It is quite possible to play puckered with a relaxed mouth, dropping your jaw for bends, and accessing your air column to your diaphagm for a more full tone, but puckering doesn't require you to do this the way tongue blocking does. If we feel anxious we tend to tense up and may revert to old beginner habits.
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Doug S.
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