A demonstration of what can be accomplished with breathing exercises (respiratory therapy) and electronic wind instruments.

See the Explanation page and download the sheet music at our Download page!

Introducing

MY BREATH MY MUSIC
A very big Welcome to you all. My name is Ruud van der Wel and I live in the Netherlands. I work with disabled children in "Rijndam Revalidatiecentrum" (rehabilitation centre) in Rotterdam.

Some 5 years ago I started to make music with handicapped children. I started my own project much inspired after seeing a workshop on wind instruments by Alex Hanssen. Music therapist in the rehabilitation center "Groot Klimmendaal" in Arnhem.

The biggest target group are children who suffer from muscular diseases such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), Duchenne (DMD) and others who have Muscular Dystrophy (MD). There is also a smaller target group of those who suffer from Tumors, Leukomalacia, Autosomal Dominant Cerebellar Atrophy (ADCA). I want to share my experiences of playing an instrument with this group of children I have been a musician since the age of 7 and am all to aware of the therapeutic value involved in playing under any circumstances able bodied or otherwise. In the first place my goal was to find a nice way to give breathing exercises (respiratory physiotherapy) . Music therapy is part of the physiotherapy in our center. As you can imagine using a wind instrument is a very nice way to do breathing exercises. But as I found out over the years there is much more to it if the best possible results are to be achieved. I made some easy to do adjustments on an electronic instrument, the Yamaha WX5 midi wind controller and noticed that the instrument was playable for my group of children, meaning that they could play tunes. As a matter of fact even the children with the least possibilities of the group could play the instrument. This is because you can play a full scale of notes (G, A, B, C, D, E, Fis, G) with one hand. And because of its wonderful Electronics the instrument can provide Maximum Sound with Minimum Effort!

I want to explain to you how I worked things out by introducing you to some of my students. Evelien / Marleen / Avram / Sylvia / Willem, Arie and Johan. They will explain to you how they did it. You too can do it.

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I suggest that you have a look at all of the individuals involved each have their own unique way of playing the WX5. You will see that most children play with the single hand method I developed. There is an explanation page available. To make learning a song as easy as possible I also developed a very simple method to transcribe songs. For an explanation and a collection of songs we use there is a download page.

To make this collection of songs grow we invite you to join us. There is also a Tips and Tricks part, if you have a tip send it!
Ruud van der Wel - June 2005

What do you need to start playing the WX5: The Yamaha WX5 Wind MIDI Controller. The Yamaha VL70-m Virtual Acoustic Tone Generator. Powered desk top speakers. A microphone stand.

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