Irish piano students make a big impact

A group of Irish piano students have taken the leap from academic studies into the world of business in spectacular style.

‘Play it By Ear’ are a group of four schoolgirls taking part in the Student Enterprise Awards Programme as part of their studies. The programme involves the students setting up and running their own Mini-Company throughout the year.

Play it by Ear
Play it by Ear

Play it by Ear is the successful business venture set up by Cría Dowling, Bronagh Nugent, Elizabeth MacBride and Lydia O’Neill. They’ve developed a CD to aid music students prepare for exams.

Play it by Ear

All four girls play the piano and they agreed that the most daunting part of an exam is the aural test, where the student has to listen to a musical piece played on the piano and then sing it back to the examiner. They also agreed that this element was almost impossible to prepare for without a professional piano player’s assistance.

So the group set up Play it by Ear, a CD of short musical pieces for students to practice with before a big exam. They say nothing like this is currently available and the response the group has received has been overwhelming.

Available on Ebay

Play it by Ear won the Best Business Report Award at the Student Enterprise Awards Kildare County Final and are extremely grateful to the help they have had from their teachers.

Cría said “When we started this project, we had not realised what we had gotten ourselves into. It was a lot of hard work composing tests for each grade and then creating the tracks ourselves using music composition and sound editing software.”

“Though, we have been very fortunate to have received great support and guidance from our music teachers.”

The product has sold out once and the group have ordered a second batch of CDs as well as making the product available on Ebay.

If you would like to read more about the girls and their product, check out their website at:

http://playitbyearnewbridge.wix.com/playitbyear