[music playing]

Rex Lewis-clack: Hi, Leslie.

Lesley Stahl: Hi, Rex. How are you?

Rex Lewis-clack: I'm good today, Leslie.

Lesley Stahl: Hi, Rex. We met with Rex Lewis-Clack just before his eighth birthday—

Can we shake hands?

Rex Lewis-clack: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: —in Los Angeles, where he lives with his mother, Cathleen. Rex is blind and brimming with enthusiasm.

Rex Lewis-clack: It's good to see you, Lesley.

Lesley Stahl: But he can't tie his shoes or dress himself, or even carry on a basic conversation.

Rex Lewis-clack: Lesley?

Lesley Stahl: Yes?

Rex Lewis-clack: I did a wonderful job standing on the carpet.

Lesley Stahl: But with all the things Rex can't do, he can do this.

I'm going to play three.

Rex Lewis-clack: Four.

Lesley Stahl: Four?

Play any note on the piano, and Rex can tell you what it is.

Rex Lewis-clack: F sharp, E flat, F, C sharp.

Lesley Stahl: Yes.

It's a talent only one in 10,000 people have.

You are good, aren't you?

Rex Lewis-clack: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: Yes, you are. You're really good.

But it isn't just Rex's ability to recognize notes that's extraordinary.

[piano playing]

This is a Schubert impromptu that Rex's piano teacher, David Mehnert is teaching him. Rex is hearing it now for the first time.

[piano playing]

Remember, he isn't reading music. He can't even see the keys. Rex is a musical savant, one of a handful of people in the world who share a mysterious combination of blindness, mental disability, and exceptional musical talent.

David Mehnert: Good job, Rex.

Lesley Stahl: Away from the piano, the difference in Rex is striking.

Cathleen Lewis: Rex, you need to calm down. Listen to me.

Lesley Stahl: He needs an aide to accompany him in his second grade special ed class, where understanding even simple concepts is a problem.

Teacher: What shape do you think that is? Is it a triangle or a square?

Rex Lewis-clack: A circle.

Teacher: No, we just did the circle.

Lesley Stahl: Rex was born with a huge cyst in his brain. And at four months, doctors discovered he was blind. Over the next few years, the news got worse and worse. Rex didn't learn to walk or talk or eat solid food. And he developed autistic-like symptoms—

Cathleen Lewis: I know you don't want to, but you need to pick it up.

Rex Lewis-clack: No.

Cathleen Lewis: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: —including hypersensitivity in his hands.

Cathleen Lewis: Can you pick it up?

Rex Lewis-clack: No, no, no.

Cathleen Lewis: He didn't want to touch anything for many, many years. And if you made him touch things, he would scream.

Lesley Stahl: It seemed that there was little hope for Rex, until an unexpected breakthrough— a keyboard Rex's father gave him for his second birthday.

Does he love it right away? Does he take to it?

Cathleen Lewis: Oh, gosh. It was like he was being transported into another world. He started hitting it at first. And within two minutes, he was actually laying his hands on the piano, and holding them there.

Lesley Stahl: This is at this time when he wouldn't touch things.

Cathleen Lewis: Right. He wouldn't touch anything. And he was just fascinated. You could see it in his face.

Lesley Stahl: The keyboard instantly became Rex's favorite activity. It was the first thing he wanted to do in the morning and the thing he wanted to do even when his body couldn't do it anymore. Rex began puzzling out melodies to songs he'd heard. And when he was five, Cathleen started looking for someone to teach him

Rex Lewis-clack: (singing) Don't make it bad.

Lesley Stahl: She asked the music director of her church, Lynn Marzulli, who was astonished by how quickly Rex learned scales in each of the twelve keys.

Lynn Marzulli: With Rex, one scale, one time, and then he took it, and he went through every key that same day—

Lesley Stahl: Come on.

Lynn Marzulli: —every single key. It seems like the musical software is already in Rex.

Lesley Stahl: To Rex, the keyboard just naturally made sense.

Lynn Marzulli: The piano was order, precise order. And he was in control. A five-year-old kid— I can't see. I have no idea what's going on. But this I'm in control of. And this is my world.

Lesley Stahl: Rex's current piano teacher, David Mehnert works with Rex several times a week.

David Mehnert: The first conversations I had with Rex were through the keyboard. He would play a phrase. I would play a phrase. And it was a game.

Lesley Stahl: It was improv.

David Mehnert: Totally improv. He would try to force me into a corner. And then he would laugh and laugh and laugh.

Lesley Stahl: Wait, you mean he was trying to outwit you?

David Mehnert: Yes. He's not just as a musical as I am. He's 100 times more musical than I am. He's more musical than anybody I've ever met in my life.