How To Blow a Shofar

Ingredients

• A shofar
• Practice

Steps

1. Wet your lips and blow - Moisten your lips and position the mouthpiece at the right corner of your lips. With your lips tightly pursed, vibrate them in the same way you would to blow a raspberry. (22 sec. )
2. If no sound comes out, practice with your lips against the palm of your hand, or try holding the shofar against a different part of your lips. (32 sec. )
3. Learn the four sounds - Learn the four distinct sounds made with the shofar at various points in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. (40 sec. )
4. There are many variations of each of the four sounds. (48 sec. )
5. Blow a tekiah - Practice how to blow a tekiah, a three-second sustained blast that ends abruptly on a high note. (52 sec. )
6. Blow a shevarim - Now learn the shevarim, three one-second notes that rise in tone that each end on a higher note. (60 sec. )
7. Blow a teruah - Train yourself to blow 13 short, staccato sounds that resemble an alarm, known as a teruah. (69 sec. )
8. End with tekiah gdolah - Learn how to do the tekiah gdolah, a final blast that lasts at least 10 seconds. (80 sec. )
9. Used in biblical times to proclaim the anointing of a new king, the shofar is now played on certain holy days to symbolize the prophet Hosea’s call to “blow the shofar in Zion” and return to God. (91 sec. )