For almost 50 years, while tuning up pianos for some of the world’s most famous musicians, Steve Duncan ’69 was also tuning in to the interesting things going on and being said around him, so in 2021, he published Behind the Scenes, a memoir-styled collection of stories and vignettes that span his career.

Duncan’s tuning career started when he began a part-time job during college at a piano shop he visited while looking for a piano. It was there Duncan learned to repair and, later, how to tune the instrument. “Learning how to tune took a lot of listening. I would watch my boss and then go to a different place in the shop and try it myself,” remembers Duncan. “The fine line between fourths and fifths is the starting point for learning to tune. It takes time to get the ‘feel’ of those small increments. I use an A440 tuning fork, and the rest is in my ears. You do it enough, and it becomes second nature.”

As I told friends funny or interesting stories about my encounters with celebrities, they would often tell me, ‘You need to write a book.’ … I figured this was the time to do it.

The idea for Behind the Scenes came about as Duncan told friends stories about things he observed while he was tuning pianos at concert venues or in the homes of some incredible musicians – from Benny Goodman to The Rolling Stones, from Willie Nelson to Elton John. “As I told friends funny or interesting stories about my encounters with celebrities, they would often tell me, ‘You need to write a book.’ So, when COVID hit and my work slowed, I figured this was the time to do it,” says Duncan.

Duncan’s passion for writing is not new. In fact, his writing was featured in the first few issues of Baylor’s Periaktoi. “I wrote some reviews of popular music and did some poetry and even a short story,” recalls Duncan, who credits retired teacher Bill Cushman ’59 with inspiring him. And while Behind the Scenes is his first book, it is not the last. “Since the finishing touches were put on Behind the Scenes, I’ve been working on the first of five fantasy adventure books, and that one is completed and significant portions of the other four have already been written. There are several more novels floating around that I intend to get to as well.”

“I have been writing for many years,” smiles Duncan, “but just never pulled it all together until this time around. Now I’ve got a full head of steam.”