How to Play the Shofar

A shofar is a rams horn trumpet. It can be used to blow as a warning, call to arms, or in celebration. It is usually blown on the Jewish New Year. It heralds the coming of the Messiah. Blowing a shofar is not an easy thing to do. Be patient and be prepared that it will be harder than you think. Do not get discouraged that you cannot play well at first.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Buy a shofar or find a friend who has one who will let you practice with theirs.
2. Begin to make the correct mouth form. You will need to spend some time practicing this form. The shofar is played as you would play a horn instrument.
3. Tighten the sides of your lips to make your mouth look much smaller than it actually is and when you take in air you should only be able to suck in air from the hole you have made using your lips and not from the sides.
4. Attempt to close that hole. Blow out as hard as you can. Your lips will feel like they are vibrating at this point and you should be making almost an elephant sounding noise.
5. Try doing Steps 3 and 4 with the shofar now. Put the shofar at the spot where your lips vibrated the most while you were practicing.
6. Sound should begin to come out of the shofar at this point. If that happens you have been successful in playing the shofar.
7. Keep practicing until you can make a better and longer blast out of the shofar. Once you do this then you can begin to learn the shofar commands and amaze your relatives on the High Holy Days.

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful not to blow so hard that you become light headed.