worried about untuned piano influencing niece

[cziffra]

As the topic explains pretty clearly, i have a 3 year old niece who regularly comes in to my room while i'm practicing and loves to play the "Puh anno" with me. 

I've noticed that people say kids need to have perfectly tuned pianos around them all the time- unfortunately ours isn't, and because it isn't a particularly good one, and we're only renting it, we aren't going to tune it. 

Should i be really worried about this or should i just accept it as slightly regrettable stuation and move on?

[pianonut]

you could always get her a little electronic keyboard to play on herself.  that way the keys would match her finger size and she could play when you are not (or while you are, if it doesn't bother you too much).  my little three year old follows me around everywhere, too.  just a minute ago she was under the computer sitting with her box of stickers.  now she is terrorizing the cat.  she dresses it up, covers it with blankets, and generally distresses it until it bites her.  then she cries.  she does this over and over.  thankfully the cat doesn't sink it's teeth in, just warns her.

[faulty_damper]

This question has also been in my thoughts.

My own concerns about this is that I have difficulties playing on pianos that are slightly out of tune (unisons are out).  The reason being is that if the unisons are slightly out and the strings vibrate, sometimes the vibrations of each string cancel each other out due to the differint frequency of vibration.  This means that tones are cut short and don't "sing".  This is a problem for me because I play by ear in the sense that I rely on what I hear to guide when I play the next note.  If the note is cut short it will throw my sense of the melody because I feel I have to play faster so that the note will be connected to other notes.

But then I am not three years of age.  I don't know what goes on in their heads.  Playing the piano for a 3yr old may be primarily a physical and not musical activity.

Another possibility may be that because she is exposed to pitchs that are not in unison with each other is that she may accept that that is how pianos sound.  But also consider that the ability to hear pitchs that are tuned is innate as we can all sing in unison (except for cultures that don't sing, like Americans who can't sing Happy Birthday in tune, according to W.A. Mathieu.)

I don't think it matters whether or not the piano is in tune.  It would certainly bother me but if I have to play on a piano that is out of tune, I just turn off my ears and play by touch rhythm.

[faulty_damper]

And apparently, it really doesn't matter if it were in tune since pianos are usually tuned equally which means an equally tuned piano is already out of tune.  Mind boggling.   

[timothy42b]

I think that there is no way hearing an untuned piano could do as much harm as not hearing music at all.

On the other hand, listening to American Idol!  Their singing hurts my ears.  Does their intonation bother anybody else? 

[ChristmasCarol]

So few pianos are in tune, that if this were a problem I would be tone deaf and not able to recognize a proper pitch anywhere any time.  Alas, it is part of the real world.  Is American Idol dreadful, excruciating, awful, horrible tonalities?  Oh YES!  I cannot watch it.  Only saw it once cause my daughter wanted to watch.  My experience of it is like fingernails on a blackboard.