The lute style can also be highly personal, as is demonstrated by the great technical virtuosity and unsurpassed intuitive talent of Muhamed El Amin, who influenced an entire generation of young musicians. Born in 1943 in the city of Oued Maddani, he began to learn the lute at the age of eleven. At twenty he composed his first songs and experimented with traditional Eastern maquamat. In Muhamed El Amin's work the style of the "great songs", the "al-agani al kabira" is especially evident. His arrangements are not simply melodic potpourris but through-composed works.