Therapists say, if you were to look at the brain of a Parkinson's patient, you'd see the part that controls motor skills is all out of whack. One treatment that was really developed ages ago can give it all some order, not to mention, a beat.

Mike Kagel's mind remains as sharp today as it was 30 years ago. When it comes to his hands, though, precision has blurred over that time.

For the last three decades, Kagel has been living with Parkinson's disease. His wife, Betty, watched as his hands and feet became less his own.

"When you're in this with the sick person, then you think you're the only one,” said Betty Kagel.

At home, that may seem the case but, once a week, someone else takes over at the keyboard and the shakes that define Mike's movement turn to rhythm.

The disease has worn out Mike’s voice over time.

"I'm getting slower and softer. I call it sexy,” said Mike Kagel.

That voice he had booms back once a week. Every Monday night, he's part of a band that he was instrumental in assembling three years ago.

"Betty said, ‘You always sing. Why don't you sing?’” he said.

So he connected with music therapist Elizabeth Losson.

"Music doesn't cure Parkinson's but I see it helping them a lot,” said Losson.

From that concept grew a group called Tremble Clefs, led now by Harry Beckett.

"I get them active, that at least they make an effort to use their mouth and their voice, because that's where the therapy is for them,” said Beckett.

Using songs that members grew up with, some of them to which they fell in love, the disease that binds this group fades away.

"That's why I act silly, so they don't feel out of place acting silly,” said Beckett.

Fun makes up part of the equation. Leaders insist this affects these people like any type of physical therapy.

"It just organizes the brain and, with Parkinson's, everything is just out of whack. Rhythm puts everything in place, kind of like when you have your iPod and start walking to the beat without thinking about it,” said Losson.

She sees proof in the singers.

"I've seen some people make that instantaneous progress where they prove they can literally double their speaking volume or improve their intelligibility by 100 percent just like that!” the therapist said.

"He always picks on me,” said Mike Kagel.

He doesn't seem to really mind the attention all that much, however.

“I live for Monday nights,” he said.

Because, come Monday night, some of the control he's lost to three decades of disease rebound, and his mind and movement are -- at least for a time -- on the same page.

Those involved in the program say this, of course, isn't meant to replace other forms of therapy; patients still need medications and physical therapy. This is meant to supplement those treatments.

The Springfield group of Tremble Clefs is part of a national program, and it’s always looking for new members.