He continued his education in a school directed by the writer Abderrahman Guiga who objected to his disciple indulging in any form of musical expression or song.

After leaving school, he returned to his father's weaver's workshop, where he learned to weave, and frequented cafes that broadcast discs of great Egyptian singers all day long.

By listening to them, he learned a considerable number of classical songs and soon formed an orchestra composed of Tunisian Jewish musicians where he played the oud.

He quickly acquired a solid reputation so that in 1915 he decided to go to Tunis to try his luck in the musical field: he gave a concert every night in a café in the medina.

In this period, Tunisian music was enriched with the arrival in Tunis of a group of Jewish artists from Tripoli, including Cheikh El Afrit, who fled Italian colonialism .