Canadian Song Writer and Piano Man Mike Wilkinson shows you where you should take your Song Writing

By Mark Grove

Calgary, Canada Based Piano-player Michael Wilkinson is another artist who favors original material and wants his music to be the star in his show, not him. He says that he writes and composes music that has to wow him before he comes out with a full song. This Berklee College of Music student has specialized in songwriting and piano, and has a Masters Certificate in Songwriting, Music Business and Technology.


Michael has has been a writer of music and lyrics for a decade, and played piano 19 years. Mike has been with Berklee for 3 years and plans to be like the Alan Parsons Project and write material, that will be able to keep him out of the limelight and make a living doing what he loves best, as a composer, piano player and writer.

When you compose music on the piano, what is your main objective? To come up with something based more on classical music or a combination of genres such as rock, jazz and classical?

My main objective when writing music on the piano is to come up with something that sounds different and unique to me. I find that I don’t really have a genre in mind when I am writing music. I find my songs more in the soundtrack genre of music. They are more mellow and instrumental. If you were to classify them, I would probably classify them more Jazz than classical, however, they don’t really have a jazzy feel to them.

Do some of your songs have lyrics, or are you just doing strictly instrumentals for now?

I write both music and lyrics however, I write each of them as separate entities. Each of the songs (music or lyrical) can be used in separate projects. I find that each of the lyrics and music come at separate moments in time, so it’s tough for me to sit down with a musical idea and write lyrics, or vice versa.

Could you name a teacher from Berklee, or musician that you regard highly as being a great songwriter that you’ve learned from?

This is a tough question, because many of my instructors at Berklee have been great inspirations and great guilds for me. I know that one of the most influential instructors I’ve had so far is Jimmy Kachulis. He was the teacher I had for three of my songwriting courses. He always encouraged me and was always so supportive of my goals. I had a lyric writing instructor who was the same. Shane Adams was always so supportive of my music and always made me feel like my music and my lyrics were worthwhile. I also had a business instructor who also would say that he could see all of my goals coming true in the near future and he always supported me in my ventures. His name is George Howard.

Do you have any plans to play with a band in Calgary and play the club scene? Or are your music career plans different?

I don’t really have any plans to play around the city, as a performer. If the chance comes up, however, I don’t say no. But I don’t really like to perform my own stuff. I would rather stay behind the scenes and have the music be in the forefront.


To listen to Mike’s piano composition’s, go to : http://go.berkleemusic.com/music4ever

You can also email Mike at:mikesmusic@shaw.ca

Piano and keyboards are more involved in the making of music, and seem to complement different genres. Take a listen to Mike’s Mp3’s of original piano rips.

Mark Grove--CGP