il Troubadore and Amirah at the Art Bank during the IDADA First Friday (2008 August 01). Photo by Kara Simpson Originally posted here: http://www.indy.com/photos/search/il%20Troubadore/4

So I've been working on clarinet lines for il Troubadore's resident clarinetist extraordinaire, Wendi (aka Amirah when she's bellydancing with us). We've been needing to do this for some time as we're now getting close to recording [finally] a full length il Troubadore CD.

It's been ages since I've worked on written music, since in il Troubadore we've moved on to just woodshedding things aurally, so I've had to do some research on orchestration again since Wendi is playing a G clarinet (which means I have to transpose her parts).

What's been great is that she is now MUCH more comfortable improvising on maqamat (Arabic/Middle Eastern Scales) after her stint at Folk Tours in Pennsylvania. That is a huge relief as I've tended to not improvise nearly as much since we've not had a contrasting melody instrument to offset how monotonous it can sound with just one voice constantly doing the improvs.

Wendi has also picked up some rudimentary skills with the riq (Middle Eastern tambourine) which really compliments our sound especially for the Turkish and Turkish Rom music.

Now if we can only get Wendi to learn how to play Greek style...