After many years of independent music tutoring, Gillespie Music Studio was established in 1990.
Since launching, we've taught over 500 students, many of whom have won medals in music competition.
All ages are welcome. Our students have ranged from young children to 70-year-old adults.
Instructor T. H. Gillespie ensures each piano student is trained in proper traditional classical techniques. He has helped many students achieve gold in ISSMA contests.
On piano, guitar and bass, even young and beginning students are taught building blocks for improvisation, composition and arranging (skills which otherwise are seldom taught until the student is more advanced). We enjoy working with each student and parent to craft an approach that meets each client’s particular needs and interests.
With more than 30 years of teaching and performance experience, T. H. Gillespie brings you creative and comprehensive professionalism.
While Gillespie ensures traditional classical training, he also introduces even young and beginner students to basic theoretical concepts and improvisational techniques. Gillespie enjoys working with parents and students to craft a personalized approach that meets the specialized needs of each client.
Gillespie likes to use intervallic relationships (whole and half steps, thirds, fourths, fifths, etc.) to teach even very young students about how music works and how music can be composed, arranged and improvised. He has published this approach in his method series, FIT TO BE PLAYED (Fundamental Intervallic Transpositions), which teaches young and beginning students how to play in every key (rather than only in the usual “beginning” keys of C, F, and G major). His very young students have been known to play the popular “Heart and Soul” or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” melodies in every key, rather than only in the usual key of C or G major.
T. H. Gillespie began playing classical piano at an early age under Yoshiko Sato and continued training through his college years at the Indiana University School of Music. Throughout these years, Gillespie developed additional interests and skills in various other genres as well, including rock, blues, gospel, hymnody, jazz fusion, and, most recently, Irish and neo-Celtic music. Gillespie also added guitar, bass guitar and even some percussion to his repertoire.
Gillespie first began teaching private lessons just out of high school and has continued this career through the present. Gillespie Music Studio now provides piano, guitar, and bass lessons. Additionally, Gillespie provides services in recording, composing, arranging, and lead sheet writing. Often clients will come to the studio for help with producing their own original material: Gillespie enjoys working with them to smooth out the rough spots and help with finishing touches that they may have been unable to manage on their own.
From piano recitals while still a child to large concert venues, Gillespie’s performance and recording experience has been rich and varied. He played in a number of rock and gospel venues throughout high school and college. His first major recording (Where Is Your God?) was with the fusion gospel group, Imago Dei, original material which aired throughout the U.S. in the late 70s. Indiana University jazz professor Dominic Spera called the album “the fresh, creative voice in gospel music.”
Since then, Gillespie has composed, arranged, and performed on a number of neo-Celtic recording projects with ethnomusicologist and Irish musician, L. E. McCullough, including A Celtic Christmas, Favorite Irish Session Tunes, St. Patrick Was A Cajun, I Am of Ireland, and Myths For A New Millennium (a trilogy of Celtic suites for ballet, choreographed by Indianapolis-based artistic director David Hochoy and premiered by his modern dance company, Dance Kaleidoscope). The suites received favorable reviews, and the final one has been brought back four times, each performance receiving standing ovations.
Gillespie also performs with Indianapolis’ premier Irish band, The Irish Airs (led by Dublin native, Brian Cunningham), who, in turn, often perform with two children’s acts, the world-renowned Indianapolis Children’s Choir (ICC) led by Henry Leck, and the Irish Dancers of Indianapolis, led by world champion Irish dancer John Timm. The Irish Airs recently toured Ireland with the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and performed at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Gillespie composed and arranged several pieces for ICC, one of which has been published by Hal Leonard.
Gillespie’s performance venues include the Indiana Roof Ballroom, Indianapolis Museum of Art, American Cabaret Theatre (with cabaret star Shannon Forsell), the Athenaeum Rathskeller, Civic Theatre, Indianapolis Historical Society, Hilbert Circle Theater, Pike Performing Arts, and various Irish and art festivals in the region (including Indianapolis’ Irish Fest and Cumberland Arts Summer Festival).
For performance bookings, lessons or other inquiries, please call
310-555-4355 or click below:
For performance bookings, lessons or other inquiries, please call 310-555-4355 or click below:
“If I had had a teacher like T.H. when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have quit studying music at such an early age.”
"I really enjoy my piano lessons, and also our recording sessions. I can put my tracks onto a CD or my ipod and let my friends and family hear my arrangements."