Born in Oakland, California, George began playing the violin at age four and continued for the next seven or eight years.

At age 10 he got a piano and immediately began using it to improvise and write songs. Shortly afterwards he began taking piano lessons. Aside from his father, Mr. Tingley feels that his best musical training came from playing along with records. He spent many hours from the ages of 14 to 16 playing along with recordings of the Beatles among others.

Mr. Tingley received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Piano Performance from California State University, Hayward, and completed both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Music Theory at the University of Southern California. During the 1970s he was a private composition student of the legendary Nadia Boulanger in Paris, France.

After returning from France, Mr. Tingley began teaching privately. In 1989 he started writing music for the educational market and now has over 100 published piano pieces. His most popular solo is Reverie, published by Alfred in 1991. His collection of piano duet music, Fiddle and the Tuba (for teacher and student), is listed in the bulletin of the National Federation of Music Clubs.

In 1992 Mr. Tingley wrote a composition for Olympic figure-skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi, entitled Kristi's Theme. A Warner Bros. publication, the piece was arranged for a full symphony orchestra and recorded featuring Mr. Tingley as the piano soloist. Kristi has skated to the music on many live and televised performances.