they are playing the guitar. or they are playing the guitars?

[Erica]

If we see many people are playing the guitar(guitars) together. How to describe this activity, playing the guitar or playing the guitars?

what's more, should we say "play erhu" or "play the erhu", "play pipa" or "play the pipa"
(erhu and pipa are classical Chinese musical instruments)

[Alan]

Hi Erica,

'Playing the guitar' would be the usual construction. If you wanted to suggest the plural, you would say: playing their guitars. 'The' is usually used before a musical instrument after 'play'.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Erica]

OK，I see. Thank you very much!