How to Blow a Shofar

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Master the art of coaxing music from a shofar, or ram's horn, an instrument played on certain Jewish holy days.

Step 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.

Tip
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.

Step 2: Learn the four sounds
Learn the four distinct sounds made with the shofar at various points in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

Tip
There are many variations of each of the four sounds.

Step 3: Blow a tekiah
Practice how to blow a tekiah, a three-second sustained blast that ends abruptly on a high note.

Step 4: Blow a shevarim
Now learn the shevarim, three one-second notes that rise in tone that each end on a higher note.

Step 5: Blow a teruah
Train yourself to blow 13 short, staccato sounds that resemble an alarm, known as a teruah.

Step 6: End with tekiah gdolah
Learn how to do the tekiah gdolah, a final blast that lasts at least 10 seconds.

Did You Know?
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.

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There's no need to only play it in the right corner of your lips. In fact, it might be harder to do it that way, especially if you have a background playing another wind instrument. I grew up playing French Horn, and find it much easier to play with the shofar in the center of my mouth.

yarocdesigns

The sound affects in the temple makes it sound like it would in Israel. Super job by the shofar blower, made it look ease.

NatanelYaHu

That last one, The Angel Brings With him From heaven, that Shofar, To Blow At The Harpazo, Then shall be a procession of sounds....

LindaLight-esqr

wow, can't wait my shofar to arrive

RozelyLindim

SHANA TOV HAPPY NEW SWEET YEAR SHABBAT SHALOM

dantecalderon

I can blow my shofar but can't get the high note on the end. How do I do this?

johanssonstudio

Very educational and helpful for my project!

thepencil

Unfortunately, some of these instructions are not in line with classic halachah, even if we give some leeway for variation in customs. Most, if not all opinions say that a tekiyah is a plain straight blast (with no 'high notes' on either end, so the tekiyah here, as nice as it sounds, is already out of line). Also, trying to associate sounds with actual time lengths (in seconds) is not a good approach. It is more correct to pay attention to relative lengths, making the two tekiyot equivalent in length to the sound that they are 'sandwiching' (shevarim, teruah, or the combined shevarim-teruah).

Just for fun, I took a look at Wikipedia's take on the sound types (NOT a halacha source mind you, but sums it up rather simply without an entire discussion) but I made a few changes, where the description was wordy or not clear enough:

Tekiah (תקיעה‎) is a single long straight blast.

Shevarim (שברים‎) is composed of three consecutive shorter sounds.
Here, there are variations as to whether these sound perfectly straight or 'moaning'.
Teruah (תרועה‎) - in most Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions, this is a string of 9 (or more, but not necessarily 13 as stated) staccato blasts. The teruah blasts should be clearly shorter and quicker than the shevarim blasts. However, in many Sephardic communities (e.g. Yemenite, Tunisian, Babylonian), it sounds more like a quivering (vibrato?) tekiya.

The last tekiah at the end of a set is noticeably extended beyond the tekiyah length - called a tekiah gedolah (and although this is often done, it does not require a Guinness world record).

Note: This is just my two cents and certainly not at the level of a Rabbinic discussion, but hopefully it presents some of the very basics and why the video may be misleading sometimes.

mashtinbasir

Great shofar player! Doesn't tekiah ought to be at least 9 seconds and so forth ... Shevarim (3 x3 seconds= Tekiah 9 seconds), Teruah (at least 9- staccatos = tekiah of 9 seconds) Tekiah Gedolah (as long as one can hold of at least over 13 seconds) this of course might be according to Sephardic tradition. Does any one know what Shulchan aruch say? Thanks

Hever