Since he was 6 years old, TK Gardner has been playing guitar. He has studied on and off during his life with various teachers, and also has spent a good deal of time teaching others. While other players may stick to one genre or another, TK has the unique quality of having performed professionally in several different genres ranging from solo jazz, jazz trio, rock/blues trio, solo singer/songwriter, classical artist, pit orchestra guitarist, contemporary jazz/new age recording artist (his album 8x10 was played on over 100 radio stations in the U.S. and also internationally for over three years), and professional entertainer.

In addition to his performing credits, he has also produced several records for other artists, most notably two records for Ann Reed, the Minnesota-based singer/songwriter which were released on Red House Records. He is an accomplished producer, arranger, performer and composer, owning over 200 copyrights for songs and pieces he has written.

TK was also involved in the long-distance bicycling community for several years culminating in his participation in the 1999 Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle event, completing 1200 km in just over three days. He was awarded the "Super Randonneur 5000" medal in 2000 by the Audax Club Parisien for completing 11 different long-distance events over the course of only a year and a half, one of only a handful of Americans accorded that honor at the time.

TK also has an interest in philosophy and aesthetics and earned a B.A. in Philosophy in 1976. More recently his studies earned him an M.M. degree in Classical Guitar Performance, an experience that was augmented by numerous seminars in music history, theory, and musical aesthetics. He was the first recipient of the Wm. J. Alamshah award and also received the Paul Haner award, both from the Philosophy Department at California State University at Fullerton, and now teaches in the Music Department at the same institution.