"It lifts my spirit up:" Alzheimer's patients find therapy through the power of music

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Hearing a song can take you back to an exact place or time in your life, helping you to remember. The power of music is therapy for those who have forgotten.

All it takes is one note and one song to bring back 1,000 memories.

Music is part of your soul and for this composer, he is re-tapping into something that's been forgotten.

"The memories that made them happy it's my job to bring those memories back out and we do it in song," said Composer, Singer & Conductor for The Amazing Grace Choir, KC Williams.

But through music, James McKinley remembers.

"Well it lifts my spirit up and it makes me travel through life, makes it easy for me to go," said James McKinley, Alzheimer's patient.

It's when they're together that the transformation is greatest.

"This has become a sort of support group without calling it that," said Gina Green-Harris, with Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute of Milwaukee.

They are young, despite minds that struggle.

"They're remembering, they're remembering through music," said Williams.

Connecting them to the present.

"It is totally amazing how that memory comes back and 1 note from the piano will trigger that memory, so what that tells me is music is a vital part of life," said Williams.

Because each memory has a soundtrack of its own.

"The Amazing Grace choir is hosting a free community center concert next Saturday, May 16th at 2 p.m. here at the Milwaukee School of the Arts,"