Instruments like the sumsumya, which has five or six strings, are limited but the oud has no limitations. You could say that the oud accommodates everything - Beduin music, Persian music and Turkish music. Beduin music is right in the middle of all this. When I play the oud I can play all types of oriental and even western music. I can even play jazz.
Jazz is improvised music, and Arab music has 'taksim,' which is also an improvised form of music.
Later this week Radwan will take part of his ensemble to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to perform a program based on the music of the late legendary Lebanese oud player and vocalist Farid El-Atrash. But I think eight players are sufficient for the songs of El-Atrash. We'd need a bigger ensemble for the songs of Om Kolthoum and Abdul Wahab, but El-Atrash wrote a lot of popular works. You can't play all the makamat on the guitar, for instance. Radwan is particularly pleased with the revival of interest in oriental roots music among the youth of today.