i play THE piano

[jessen100]

or "Do you play the piano?"

is the "the" actually grammatically necessary? perviously i have just ignored it in ES because colloquially where im from, it is not needed. nobody is going to look at you wierd if you say it either way.

but im asking if you know whether or not, according to some rules somewhere if its needed.

[Otaku]

Whether it's grammatically correct or not, Japan teaches 'the' gets added before playing of all musical instruments.

I tend to agree with you though, added or taken out, both sound okay in everyday spoken English.

[jeisensei]

Nothing I have come across on the internet has mentioned why 'the' is added. I am in the same camp with you guys. It sounds good with our without 'the' so all is good.

[moolooman]

Piano usually has the in front of it in this context on Planet Mooloo, but I don't think it matters either way.

[Richard_BenoitEnglipedia Drone]

Doesn't matter either is fine, and I ALWAYS fight the power ever year I end up teaching that point.

A couple of teachers actually accused me of being incorrect...I had to inform them otherwise.

[azuhlLt.]

I always use 'the'.

I play the piano, but not in Japan. They're too expensive here and my apartment doesn't allow musical instruments :(

[jessen100]

i konw i would surely play the piano if its the piano over there in the room we are in. but im going to go with "the" as unnecessary in ES.

[Paul]

A couple of teachers actually accused me of being incorrect...I had to inform them otherwise.

Besides just telling them that using "the" is optional what evidence did you provide to support your point if may ask? There are some teachers that will not just take the word of their ALT and want something to back it up. (Edited to add: I am not trying to come across as being sarcastic here either, but rereading the post it sure sounds that way, sorry )

As noted earlier here "the" gets used before musical instruments and the piano fits that bill I would think, yet let me add that both would be ok as I recall.

However, maybe someone here can help with this, and I could be totally wrong too, but in specific circumstances using "the" could designate one particular piano.

[Buddy-Tom]

According to The Grammar Bible (Practical English Usage, 3rd ed., Mike Swan), this falls under the section of special rules and exceptions to using articles. You may use either "the piano", or "piano" when talking about playing musical instruments.

[Richard_BenoitEnglipedia Drone]

Besides just telling them that using "the" is optional what evidence did you provide to support your point if may ask? There are some teachers that will not just take the word of their ALT and want something to back it up. (Edited to add: I am not trying to come across as being sarcastic here either, but rereading the post it sure sounds that way, sorry

Good question Paul. In this case it was a teacher I already worked with for 3 years and there is a lot of trust there. So I didn't elaborate. How I would go about supporting my point should I have to explain it to a stubborn teacher...haven't thought about it. Probably involve the internet though.

[Paul]

I noticed that just about every JTE I have uses the preceding any musical instrument, the piano, the flute, the violin, the bag-pipes.

[moolooman]

i play THE fool.

Back from holidays ladies. Hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

[Otaku]

@Mooloo, you're holiday was not good for me...

[moolooman]

Hope you had a fun time all the same. I see you had some fairly inclement weather down in your neck of the woods.

[hokkaido1]

yeh I always use "THE"

they will have to learn it in JHS later so ....