A Piano Tuning Duo

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Don Townley’s love and aptitude for piano tuning are flourishing in his son, Nathan, who is an accomplished musician, arranger, and composer.

Tuning In — A Lifetime Relationship with Pianos for Don and Nathan Townley

After majoring in percussion at San Jose State University, Don Townley earned a teaching credential in music. He then went on to play drums in a band in Tahoe, CA, while running a lawn mowing business. When he was 33, an invitation to Bible study at a church in Vina, CA, a small town in Tehama County, led to what would become a lifetime relationship with pianos.

The piano at that church needed tuning, and Don thought he would give it a try. He soon became acquainted with piano tuner Lyndo Hollingsworth who offered to apprentice Don as a piano tuner down in the small community of Ripon, CA, in the San Joaquin Valley. Lyndo offered one of his most practical pieces of advice, saying, “Eighty to ninety percent of people won’t notice that their piano is in tune, but they will notice if it has been cleaned.”

A challenging but rewarding job

When he moved back to Northern California, Don took a steady job as a bus driver for a school in Orland and kept tuning pianos as a side job. For two decades, he drove buses while he and his wife, Lisa, added son after son after son to their family.

Of all their six boys, Nathan accompanied his father most often to his piano tunings. Nathan remembers traveling with his dad to tunings when he was four years old. It wasn’t long before Nathan saw how satisfying piano tuning could be. He discovered it to be a challenging but rewarding job where he can experience the fruit of his labors by playing a freshly tuned piano.

Early days lead to playing, arranging, and composing music

Though Don started playing the piano when he began tuning them, he doesn’t claim to have a great talent. Twenty-year-old Nathan, however, has significantly benefited from his early days at his father’s side. Not long ago, the family traveled to Ireland, and Nathan soon found himself playing a tin whistle, also called a penny whistle, in the local pubs, and later learned to play an Irish bouzouki, an adaptation of the Greek stringed instrument. Along with the piano and these Irish instruments, he also plays the Cajon, beatbox, and mandolin. He also arranges and composes music.

An apprentice tuner and a dream come true

Today, Nathan is working as an apprentice piano tuner and tuning the floor pianos at the Apollo School of Music in Chico, CA, where he spent a few years observing his father’s work. At Apollo, Nathan is working alongside second-generation piano tuner and owner Vince Chambers, learning the long, intricate process of tuning pianos with 230-255 strings. According to Nathan, he’s living his dream come true. Along with becoming an adept piano tuner, his goal is teaching music and arranging and composing.

Don, who used to tune one or two pianos a day, now tunes one or two per week. He says he is glad to pass this skill on to Nathan and looks forward to retiring with Lisa into their Ripe for the Harvest ministry soon. He says Nathan’s tuning skill will come in handy with their family’s upright piano, exclaiming, “Nathan beats the piano out of tune every few months!”

Looking back over the hundreds of pianos he’s worked on, Don points to one he’s especially proud of, a 1989 Bosendorfer grand piano that was a gift to Shasta College.  Bosendorfer, an Austrian instrument, is in a class with Steinway and is often praised for its clear tone.

The joyful and talented Townley family leaves their mark everywhere they go and Nathan could compose a beautiful melody about their lives. Pause and take a listen, you will surely hear some surprises in Nathan’s musical score.