Tip Jar: That Elusive Creative Flow and How to Get ThereBy George Whitty and Ellis Hall, aka WHAT!!!!Ellis and George come to the creative process from two very different angles, but with the same goal in mind: getting the most inspired, unimpeded creative flow going when writing songs, finding a way to get up on the wave rather than slogging away in the trough.  Ellis has composed more than 4,000 songs in his lifetime and describes his process as grabbing hold of any fragment in his mind and taking the right instrument in hand and working to flesh it out from there. “My hands will start to tell me where to go be it on guitar or keyboard, and then just like a magical flow of water, it continues as my brain says OK, let’s go here or go there. Sometimes my brain goes way too fast, especially when it comes to the lyric. I love writing at all, but I particularly love writing the lyric.” George describes himself as a classic case of overly-perfectionistic writer’s block; even by age 30 he’d finished only a handful of songs.  What changed?  He got a gig writing music for As The World Turns, which paid about $60 per minute of music they used on the show.  “Go ahead, spend a year writing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, you’d never make a dime. Volume was the secret to getting cues placed from the show’s library.” So George learned what he calls the “rule of 80%.” Get the cue to where it’s 80% good, then Keep Moving. Do the next section. Put it away and start the next one. Don’t get hung up or stop because it’s not The Perfect Cue To End All Cues. 80%. “The next day? Inevitably I’d start with fresh ears and get it to 90%. And that was often what I’d turn in. Twenty cues later, with this kind of crass pay-by-the-minute formula, my new 80% was where my previous 90% had been. And understanding my own process that way, I wrote 250 cues for that and two other shows. And finishing so many tracks got me to where I write with a great flow and typically don’t spend much more than a few inspired hours on a piece of music. “Die Living” from our new CD is an example; it pretty much sounded like the final cut after just a couple hours of good flow.” Some points to consider as you work to get the maximum positive flow to your writing:1.Ellis points out that to him, writing on the right Instrument helps him get in the groove.  “From our new CD, ‘Some Days Were Meant For Rain’ was written on guitar, ‘Itch In Your Ear’ started with a bass idea, ‘Soul Street’ I wrote on a keyboard,” he says.2.“Let each tune be what it is” suggests George. “Trying to shoehorn too much into one track starts an internal competition to make this many-headed hydra work. One focussed hydra head is better, the most direct line to a strong finished product. 3.From Ellis: “Flow with it while it’s flowing, but don’t force it. Once you are in that zone where you can’t sleep because of it, write then.” George adds: “Just get something going. You’ll know where it needs to go from there, and the more you write, the more sure your sense of what needs to come next”4.And on that note, “Learn to get things framed but not necessarily finished, so the ideas can keep flowing without you stopping to ‘perfect’ things;  the minute The Perfectionist shows up, half your mind is diverted off of the original inspiration” says George.5.Ellis likes to sit with a guitar or keyboard and get close to figuring the whole tune out before he hits “record.” He writes his lyrics on a Braille typewriter, but has the whole idea mostly composed without engaging any technology first. But George likes to hear a little something to build on, so he sketches into the machine as he goes. “Hearing it back without playing it myself prompts “what comes next,” he says.6.On that note, George advises to “get as fluid as you can using your software to quickly bang in ideas; any ‘mechanical’ impediment diverts resources from your creative side to your logical side.  Something as simple as a key command for “Record/Record Repeat” in Logic lets you execute takes as quickly as possible, so you don’t get bogged down in mechanics.”About Ellis Hall and George Whitty:  Ellis and George together are WHAT!!!!, a pairing of two master musicians, making a great modern Soul CD for the ages.  Ellis’s credits include 4 years singing lead and writing for Tower of Power, performing with The Spinners, Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael McDonald, and the Ray Charles Experience.  George is a multiple Grammy-winning, Emmy-winning composer, producer and player who has worked with Carlos Santana, Celine Dion, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Grover Washington and Richard Bona. The debut CD of WHAT!!!!, In The World dropped in January, and the first single, “Die Living,” is already reaching millions of listeners weekly on FM and Internet radio and streaming services. Follow them on Instagram at whittyhallartistteam or at whittyhall.com.The post Tip Jar: That Elusive Creative Flow and How to Get There first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Vevo DSCVR Artists To Watch: 2025: Shallipopi, Diss Gacha, TZ da CoronelThe final three Next Big Things to feature on Vevo's DSCVR Artists To Watch 2025 list...
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Jorge Brea: Trends that will shape the Music Business in 2025We begin a year end series today featuring forward thinking execs sharing what they see lies ahead for music and the music business in 2025. First up is Symphonic CEO Jorge Brea.
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AI Detection of Artists: YouTube and CAA partnerYouTube is joining forces with mega-agency CAA to create tools for AI detection of artists that protect their likenesses and identities.
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Universal Music Group and Amazon Music ink new deal, including exclusive content… and with ‘Streaming 2.0’ at its heartUniversal Music Group (UMG) and Amazon Music have jointly announced a renewed worldwide licensing agreement today (December 23). According to a press release, the deal encompasses an “expanded global relationship that will enable further innovation, exclusive content with UMG artists, and advancement of artist-centric principles including increased fraud protection“. The PR claims that the deal … Continued
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AllMusic Loves 2024 ReissuesDeluxe anniversary editions, limited-edition pressings, comprehensive boxed sets, globe-trotting compilations, unearthed demo and live recordings -- all of these and much more fill our editors' personal lists of favorite archival releases from 2024.

DIY & Independent Musician News Last WeekLast week in DIY & independent musician news, our indie readers tuned into topics like a new affordable SoundCloud subscription, Holiday selfcare, starting a band, the importance of metadata, and more...
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Last week’s top Music Business NewsA busy week by any definition and music business news was no exception, with moves to reform concert ticketing in turmoil, UMG buying indie powerhouses Downtown and CD Baby, TikTok's end in the U.S approaching, and more...
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10 Great Musician Websites: Strong Design and Fan EngagementLooking for inspiration to create the perfect website for your music? Check out these 10 great musician websites that set the standard for design, functionality, and fan engagement.
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Staying Sane and Sober during the Holidays [Eric Mackay]The holiday season can be a tough time to navigate sobriety, particularly for those of us who spend time at clubs and concerts. "As someone who has been sober for over three and a half years, and with more than 25 years in the music industry," writes Eric Mackay. "I’ve experienced this struggle firsthand."
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MUSIC BUSINESS NEWS: Indies battle UMG Downtown deal • DefJam adds TV channel • R.I.P. Paul Roper • SiriusXM stumbles, Berkshire buys • More
FRIDAY 12.20.24 • Music Business News Updated Continuously Under The MORE NEWS TAB Above

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Spotify fires back at Drake: streaming platform says it has “no economic incentive for users to stream ‘Not Like Us’ over any of Drake’s tracks.”Spotify responds to Drake's allegations of a 30% lower rate in exchange for recommendations
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Paul Roper, President of Dualtone Music Group, passes away after battle with cancer"Paul Roper’s legacy of kindness, integrity, and deep love for music will continue to inspire us all."
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New Toys: iZotope Aurora Intelligent reverbAurora is the second installment of iZotope's new Catalyst Series. Aurora is an “intelligent” reverb that actively “listens to your audio and dynamically carves space out of the reverb signal to keep your instruments and vocals focused”. Promising you keep your mixes clean and clear, Aurora creates lush, three-dimensional spaces with six reverb types, over 60 presets, convenient on-board filters, and an adjustable unmasking section. Aurora truly is a different kind of reverb and the key to this is the feature NI calls unmasking. I would describe this feature as Aurora is continuously analyzing the audio and in real time nonlinearly deciding what frequency areas to dynamically minimize to enhance reverb clarity quality. The effect is quite striking. The feature can be completely bypassed, and Aurora can behave as a premium “ordinary” reverb. Perhaps the difference could be described as passive or active reverb. And sonically, I found the difference between having unmasking on and off to be quite dramatic, with the adjustable unmasking control delivering space and clarity as promised. Aurora sounds good with unmasking bypassed, and when it is engaged, the sonics sound closer to what engineers describe as polished record or radio sound, analogous to when you add a compressor to an entire mix.Aurora is designed to be fast and easy to use with a minimum of controls. A pulldown menu selects the 6 reverb algorithms, consisting of Hall, Room, Chamber, Plate, Ambience and Cathedral. Then the preset menu allows massive modification of the algorithm with interestingly named presets like “GlimmerVerb” and “Harmonic Wave”. Additional controls include pre-delay, decay, width and tone which allows the overall character of the reverb to be adjusted between dark and bright easily. If you are using Aurora on an Aux or Reverb return, the dry to wet blend control if bypassed by engaging the Solo Reverb button, which is a little unusual of a name for that control so worth noting.  We have entered a time where plugins are becoming more intelligent, active and interactive. Aurora is one such plugin that interacts and makes choices that you as the user can adjust and use to your advantage, or not. At a low price, Aurora stands up in quality sonics to reverbs costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars more. Aurora is available to run in AAX, AU, and VST3 formats. A computer with a newer operating system is necessary and requires macOS Ventura (13.6.9), macOS Sonoma (14.6.1) or Windows 10 and 11. $49 MSRPizotope.comThe post New Toys: iZotope Aurora Intelligent reverb first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.