Blow a Shofar
Blowing the shofar is a religious duty of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Learning how to properly use the shofar can be difficult at first, but is easy to accomplish. The following tips will give you a basic understanding of how to do so.
Steps
- Buy a shofar from a Jewish store. They can be found easily but can vary in price. Some are longer and better looking than others so they will be more expensive. If you would really like to blow your shofar in front of a crowd, Maybe getting a shiny, long, twisty one will make you look good, but keep in mind that a longer one is much harder to blow. Practice on a medium one - the kind that have a quarter twist. Avoid the very small ones. They are very difficult to sound. Try several shofars in the store and pick one that seems easier.
- Practice making the correct mouth form. If you play any type of horn, play the Shofar like you would play the horn. You might need to tighten your lips to fit the hole. If you don't have experience with any horns, try tightening the sides of your lips. This should make your mouth look much smaller and you should only be able to suck in air from the hole made by tightening your lips, air should not come in from the sides.
- Try to close that hole. Blow out air as hard as you can; this should make your lips vibrate, making almost like an elephant noise. This is how you are going to play your shofar.
- Get the shofar and make this form with your mouth. Put the shofar at the spot were your lips vibrate the most. Usually this is right in the center but for some people, like me, it can be played from almost anywhere on your lips depending where you put the pressure. However, the Jewish tradition requires that one use the right side of the lips for blowing shofar.
- Hopefully, you will get some sort of shriek, which means you have succeeded! It might not sound like much, but with practice, your lips will work muscles that will make you better and soon you will be blowing the extremely long blast at the end of the Jewish holidays!
- Know the shofar commands. Tekiah is a short sound, Shevarim is three blasts, Teruah is 9 short blasts in rapid succession. These can be combined, such as Shevarim Teruah which is three blasts and than 9 very fast blasts in rapid succession. Tekiah-Gedolah is usually the last command called, and it means the very long blast usually to signify the end of the holiday of Yom Kippur. Some Shofar blowers can sustain a Tekiah-Gedolah for as long as a minute! If you'd like to be the "talk of the temple", make sure your Tekiah-Gedolah is impressive.
Tips
- Practice, practice, practice!
Warnings
- Don't blow so hard that you get lightheaded and your face turns purple; obviously you either cannot do it or you're trying too hard.
Things You'll Need
- Shofar
- Lung Power
