Author: Bill Lord, Executive Director

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs, is home to the “Worlds only Bachelor of Innovation Degree,” and their program mission is beautifully aligned with those of The Global Z Recording Project.

Global Z is a social change agent, designed to have a positive impact on peace-mindedness while discovering and promoting young world class musicians. We educate participants and the world by introducing them to various cultures, places, people, and genres of music. The Bachelor of Innovation (BI) program, “is aimed toward students who want to make an impact, who are destined to change their world and add value to society.”

UCCS BI Program

We had the honor of being assigned a talented team of BI students to work with us in Fall 2014. For Spring 2018, we are thrilled to have been assigned TWO student teams, which is both unusual and exciting.

Team One will be researching, designing and developing a reference resource that advises how to acoustically treat home and school room settings while recording audio to control for bouncing sound waves using common household materials. Team Two will be designing and developing a secure microphone characteristics database we can refer to that allows us to anticipate what microphones might work best while recording a specific instrument or vocal type.

The timing on the development of both resources is close to perfect. We are currently in the middle of our Phase I Proof of Concept Project and will be able to apply acoustic treatment principles to work in the near future. Also, in December, we completed our first semester of researching microphone characteristics with the assistance of Frederick Community College’s Dr. Jon Cresci and his Audio Production students.

FCC Audio Production Program

This week, we are preparing to enter into another semester of microphone testing and analysis that will be conducted over the coming months.

Thank you to our partner institutions for assisting our organization by providing valuable resources and services, while allowing us to provide real-world teaching and learning experiences to students.

 

We are honored to announce the addition of Dr. Jan Dommerholt to our Board. Jan brings with him a unique  set of skills, knowledge and experiences that includes physical therapy; a Dutch-educational and training perspective; world culture  and teaching expertise; former performing clarinetist and saxophonist; world-renowned dry needling expertise; business owner; and expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of musicians with musculoskeletal problems. Our Board is looking forward to collaborating and brainstorming with Dr. Dommerholt as we take The Global Z Recording Project into 2018!

We feel particularly fortunate this year. In the Spring, we restructured the organization in the Great State of Maryland. We developed new partnerships and attracted a couple of awesome sponsors. We have been in operation for more than 3 years and have acquired all the equipment necessary to launch Phase I. And now, after years of research, planning, doing, and collaboration, Phase I is underway.

To our past and current Board members, our past and  current Subject Matter Experts, our past and current partners, I humbly extend my thanks for believing in what we are about, what we have achieved to date, and what we seek to achieve. Our mission is a humble one and I am honored to be working alongside such talented and caring people.

We give thanks to all who appreciate great music and share in the mission to spread peace and understanding from person to person, culture to culture.  Peace.

After many hours of collaboration, work and planning by a number of fine volunteers, the day is upon us! Global Z’s Phase I Maryland Americana Songwriting Contest is live!

To find out more about this ground-breaking contest, please check out our Phase I web page. Deadline to receive all submission is December 15!

Musicians, you will be next! If you dig playing Americana music and you are a student based in MD, keep you eyes open for a call for auditions.

My thanks to everyone involved to make this launch a reality.

We are pleased to announce a partnership with Dr. Jonathan Cresci, Director of Frederick Community College’s Audio Production Program. Dr. Jon and his students are assisting us in a huge way. They are conducting microphone character analyses on the microphones in our ‘mic locker.’ Essentially, they will record a variety of instruments using the microphones we have access to and document their findings on how the mics respond to each task. This data is extremely useful, as it will help us anticipate what mics we might choose when we have a need to record a particular family of instruments. As Phase I is now open (and there was much rejoicing!), we will be able to put this knowledge to immediate and long term use. Thanks FCC, Dr. C, and Audio Production students!

It is getting exciting around here! Our Instructional Designers Teresa and Gerry have dug in and have begun building out the course virtual shell. We are mapping out what the virtual course experience will look like, and making plans to run a characteristics analysis on our microphones with our audio engineering advisor, Dr. Jon. Essentially, we want to test our microphones on instruments and vocal styles that are commonly used in Americana music so that when we are ready to record our musicians, we have a pretty good idea of which mic or mics to reach for.  Bradley and I have assembled an extensive list of schools and musical programs across the State of Maryland. Using this list, we will invite Maryland-based music students and songwriters to audition for Phase I. We have our sights on Fall for a project launch!

After much consideration, research, and discussion, it has been decided to have Americana serve as our first genre of music! In addition, we are limiting participation to K-12 and higher education students who are either permanent residents of Maryland, or enrolled in a school based in Maryland. Maryland has historically rich Americana music roots, so it makes perfect sense to have the genre and state be glued together and serve as the underpinnings for our Proof of Concept Project! It is about to get crazy busy around here…

The last couple of weeks have been highly anticipatory. I had received all of the gear I ordered with the exception of a pair of sE X1 S microphones. The X1 S mics are brand-spankin’ new – the first run hot off the production line – and the few available reviews on their performance have left many eagerly awaiting their arrival (me included). This past Friday, the pair appeared at my doorstep. Thanks sE Electronics! This completes my grocery list of gear and allows us to move forward with the Phase I, Proof of Concept Project.

While assembling this set of gear, I have also been working to establish a few new and essential partnerships. Things are looking very promising in that regard and I anticipate having some news to report about partnerships in the near future.

Next steps include assembling our esteemed team of subject matter experts to begin working on our virtual socio-educational platform. This is getting exciting, folks!

As of May 24, 2017, The Global Z Recording Project has officially been granted Charitable Organization status by the State of Maryland.