Over the past few years, many music teachers and students have had to adapt to no end of changes to their learning and whilst some teachers may be returning to face to face lessons with the relaxation of government guidelines, for many the idea of learning online not only still appeals but may now be a necessity due to acquiring students from all over the globe!
We’ve written a guide before on tips to help improve these online lessons, but when we learned more about doozzoo by C.Bechstein, we knew it was something that we had to share with our audience. As with anything, if it bears the C.Bechstein name, we’re interested in it, so today we wanted to take a quick deep dive into doozzoo, what it offers both teachers and students and why we think it could be a great addition to your learning.
What Is doozzoo?
In its simplest form, doozzoo is a video conferencing software that has been especially crafted to suit the needs of music teachers. Where many mass video conferencing services such as Zoom, Google Meets and Microsoft teams are great for businesses, what almost all of them struggle with is the issue of latency.
Latency is the slight delay between speaking and then that message being received by the listener. In a musical context this means that it makes it incredibly difficult for both teachers and students to be able to play along together. doozzoo’s entire proposition in the market revolves around having fixed this issue, their local latency compensation software makes it possible for students to play and sing in-sync to the built-in metronome or audio files in the doozzoo player. doozzoo’s pre-session check determines how high the local latency is and automatically compensates for it, meaning perfect timing every time!
Despite being backed by C.Bechstein and whilst doozzoo is fantastic for piano teachers too, it is suitable for any type of instrumental or vocal lesson. And whether classical, jazz or pop: doozzoo works for all genres, instruments and playing styles.
Who Is doozzoo suited for?
Online music lessons aren’t for everyone, some teachers hate not being able to build that physical connection with their students and struggle with the technology side of things and likewise on the student’s side, online lessons can sometimes feel rather soulless compared to learning in person.
However, in our opinion, if you are opting for online lessons and already have the technology available, it doesn’t get much easier than doozzoo as it provides all the tools you’ll possibly need, from built in (synced) metronomes and 440hz tuners to fully editable sheet music doozzoo has you covered, lessons can even be recorded and the saved after the lesson if the student wants to revisit something.
One particular feature we love is doozoo’s use of sheet music storage where you can upload all kinds of materials needed for lessons - this means that is doozzoo is your main hub for all your lesson materials. “I couldn’t practice because I lost my music” is now a thing of the past!
We think that schools and universities will also love doozzoo as their centralised user interface makes adding new teachers and workshop rooms for group lessons effortless. Many music colleges already use doozzoo to recruit guest lecturers or conduct entrance examinations beyond their own national borders. For those looking for more tips and advice on improving their university study or organisation, our friends at StudyCrumb have plenty of tips and guides to help.
Our Thoughts?
Overall, we think doozzoo is a fantastic innovation within the music education world, giving teachers not only more flexibility to be able to teach on the go, but also it gives students who do prefer to learn online a far more engaging learning experience.
Of course, whilst not 100% as clear as learning face to face, doozzoo has paid extra attention to allow the nuance of sound details audible online as well and paid special attention to sound quality when developing the software, allowing for dynamic gradations and even small sounds to be transmitted.
Looking over the user interface and software, we think doozzoo is incredibly intuitive and self explanatory. You don’t need to explain how to operate external apps, simply do the automatic pre-session checks and you’re good to go.
All in all, we’d highly recommend doozzoo by C.Bechstein and even for those who perhaps have never tried teaching online, it’s a fantastic software to give it a try on!