musical instruments and the use of 'the'

[Mdenglish]

Hello there

I am wondering if the following sentences are correct or not and why.

1. I like piano.
2. I like the piano.
3. I like to play piano.
4. I like to play the piano.
5. How often do you spend practicing piano ?
6. How often do you spend practicing the piano ?

Thanks again so much,

mdenglish

[Nessie]

Here is my two cents:

1. I like piano.
=> I can see that you're refering to the pianos, not the act of playing them, but I've never seen people use "piano" without "the", except in compound nouns, so I think this sentence should be changed into "I like the pianos". However, I'm not a native speaker, and so the fact that I've never seen it used that way doesn't mean that the usage doesn't exist, so let's wait for some native speakers' ideas

2. I like the piano.
=> I think this sentence is ok if you're refering to a specific piano. Nevertheless I have no idea if it bears the meaning of "the pianos" in general.

3. I like to play piano.
=> This is wrong.

4. I like to play the piano.
=> This is right.

5. How often do you spend practicing piano ?
=> Two mistakes.

6. How often do you spend practicing the piano ?
=> the use of "the" before "piano" here is correct. However I personally think you shouldn't say "practise the piano". It should be "practise playing the piano".

Anyway, just my two cents.
Nessie.
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[Inga]

I agree with Nessie, that we should use the with musical instruments. However, when we talk about bands, orchestras, recordings, etc. we can omit the.
I used to play trumpet in my school orchestra.
I think in both cases (I like the piano in general and I like this particular piano) we should say 'the piano'.
As for playing (the piano), I'd say How often do you play the piano? or How much time do you spend playing the piano? But I'm not sure .
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