Matthew Wilkinson has been playing music for over 30 years. He has played in a number of music groups ranging from rock, blues, heavy metal, jazz, punk, shoegaze, electronic music, and lots of music without a genre.

At age 10, he started playing trumpet in his school’s concert band, going on to play until the summer after high school graduation. He also picked up the bass guitar and acoustic guitar at age 15, while still participating in marching band, pep band, and jazz band playing both bass and trumpet. Matthew also taught lessons to his fellow concert band mates and younger students.

During his senior year of high school, Matthew won a soloist award at every jazz band competition his school participated in, including the Iowa State Championships, in which his school won 1st place in class 3A in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Following high school, Matthew took classes at the McNally Smith College of Music studying music production and audio engineering. During this time, he recorded, mixed, and mastered several albums for bands and musicians from the Chicago, Iowa City, and Twin Cities areas.

Matthew also gave bass lessons to jazz pedagogy Masters Degree students attending the University of Northern Iowa.

Along the way, Matthew gained the skill of woodworking and began to develop as a luthier. In the summer of 2025, he combined his woodworking and luthier skills and founded MoonWood Guitars, making beautiful custom hand-made electric guitars and basses. His creations can be seen (and purchased) at Music151. Also at Music151 he applies his luthier skills to setting up each of our guitars before they are placed in our showroom, and to carefully repairing our customers’ instruments.

Matthew teaches guitar, bass guitar, and ukulele. Each lesson is tailored to the individual based on what you want to learn. You may be just starting out, or you may be an intermediate player wanting to sharpen your skills and learn a new technique, or you may want to know more about how music works and the theory behind it – regardless of your goals, Matthew can help you reach for them!