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Can I say "I play a little " to mean I am not an advanced player? How would a native speaker say they can play a musical instrument but only easy pieces of music?

I searched for an adverb that means "in a beginner way," but google mostly showed information regarding adverbs for beginner English learners.

R. Javid
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    I agree with the answers given but on the other hand. If someone asks "Do you play the piano?" I think answering "I play a little" would be fine and communicate your intended meaning. No one would then interpret that as being about the size of the instrument – Martin Smith Jan 29 '23 at 11:27
  • Related: What is the difference between "some" and "little"? – FumbleFingers Jan 29 '23 at 15:54
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    I most associate the phrase with people who are actually very good but trying not to brag about it. – OrangeDog Jan 29 '23 at 16:08
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    @MartinSmith Unless they're a comedian of course. https://youtu.be/P22gPwGuLa0?t=15 – AndreKR Jan 30 '23 at 16:05
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    Your search ("in a beginner way") gave you little because we say; I'm a beginning player or I'm a beginner at/in piano. – Lambie Jan 30 '23 at 17:52
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    Are you Schroeder from Peanuts? He literally plays a little piano. And when Lucy smashes it up, he has a cupboard full of little pianos. – gnasher729 Jan 30 '23 at 23:40
  • I usually say "I did two years of piano" - it coveys the idea that I am not a good pianist... and more :) – Roger V. Jan 31 '23 at 11:32
  • @R.Javid The answer is extremely simple. YES. HOWEVER be aware that, additionally, it is often used in a light hearted manner, by an expert. For example, I was in the studio once with a very famous rock guitarist. One of the people there didn't know who it was. Famous guy picked up a guitar to move it. Other person said "Oh, wow, do you play guitar?" The famous guy kindly said "I pla a little guitar." – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 13:07
  • Jokes and puns achieve absolutely nothing on ELL. They're unfunny, and confuse the non-English speaker. – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 13:10
  • Are you working on becoming a more advanced player or do you just enjoy playing at your current level? This doesn't address your question, but an interesting related word is to dabble : to do something or be involved in something in a way that is not very serious I dabble in piano... I can read music and play a sonata but I'm no Gershwin. – ColleenV Jan 31 '23 at 14:20

7 Answers7

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I'm a native English speaker originally from Canada currently living in the US.

YES, it is perfectly acceptable for you to say "I play a little piano." with the intended meaning that you are not a very skilled player. As explained below, it might help if you emphasize the word "little".

Some more details...

The phrase is somewhat ambiguous, as it may mean either that you are not very skilled or that you do not play very frequently. If you are in the unusual situation that you play lots of piano but are still very bad at it, you might want to consider an alternative phrase: Maybe, "I play piano, but I'm not very good."

It will not be misinterpreted as you misspeaking and claiming that you play a small-sized piano, except that -- because that is a technically possible meaning of the phrase -- someone might make a (terrible) joke: "Yes, I play a little piano." "Do you have a tiny bench, too?" "Ha, ha, ha! I see you made a little joke there." See the "I play a little guitar" meme for another example.

Here are a few random examples in bios, interviews, or blogs of people using the phase with the intended meaning that they don't consider themselves very skilled: "I play a little piano...I have a long way to go" and "I play a little piano and drums but certainly not well enough that I would ever consider playing them live.". Here are some examples of people using the phrase with the probable intended meaning that they don't play very often, usually set in contrast to some other activity: "I play a little piano, but I mainly sing." or "I play a little piano, but mostly guitar"

As someone mentioned in a comment, it is the sort of phrase that may used by someone who is very skilled or plays very often, but is either being modest or ironic. For example, Magnus Carlsen is a very skilled and famous chess player. If someone were to ask if he plays board games, he might jokingly say "Yeah, I play a little chess." Or see "I guess I play a little chess" from an amateur who has played many games.

As noted above, emphasizing the word "little" is likely to make it clear that you are not being modest. It also may indicate that you are talking about skill rather than frequency. If you say "I play a little piano" or "I speak a little English", it will probably be interpreted to mean that you are honestly claiming your skill is limited. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a reference to support this claim. Maybe someone else can find one.

Note that the meaning may be different for other activities, even when "little" is emphasized. If you say "I do a little exercise" or "I watch a little TV", you are more likely to be commenting on frequency rather than personal skill.

ymbirtt
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K. A. Buhr
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    I think I'd be more likely to say "I play piano a little" in the given situation, but you're correct that the utterance is perfectly valid as stated. – Michael Seifert Jan 30 '23 at 15:17
  • "I know a little German" – vsz Jan 30 '23 at 17:33
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    Despite all the jokes, this phrasing is very natural. – Mark Foskey Jan 31 '23 at 02:09
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    Jokes are of ZERO help on ELL. It just confuses non-English speakers. – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 13:04
  • A superb answer. KABuhr, one comment. Your paragraph that begins "The phrase is somewhat ambiguous ..." is perhaps not helpful. The answer to the given question is simply unequivocally "Yes". Of course, any phrase, whatsoever, in English, can have 1000 slight shades of meaning. The phrase really is not ambiguous, it has an absolutely clear universally agreed meaning. (Perhaps I'm just annoyed that "is somewhat ambiguous" should be more like "of course could have shades of meaning"). Cheers – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 13:12
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    @Fattie I don't know - it's pointing out that English speakers know about this ambiguity. – user253751 Jan 31 '23 at 16:09
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    Also "I speak a little French". These are idiomatic. – Weather Vane Jan 31 '23 at 16:43
  • user2, there's really no ambiguity. "I play a little piano" means "I'm a beginner / unskilled / simple player, I can play a few songs and techniques but not much." That's ALL it means. There is zero ambiguity Sure, it incredibly unusual circumstances it could mean: Paul McCartney is playing. He's one of the world's greatest pianists, singers, guitarists, drummers and bassists. Discussing a particular solo album he says "I play a little piano on X", ie the album has less piano and more guitar. ANYTHING can be ambiguous in ridiculously obscure cases! And again, – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 16:54
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    .. sure, humorously, a "small-sized" piano. But it's JUST NOT ambiguous (putting aside ridiculous "the cow literally pumped over the moom" situations). It's a straightforward well-known idiom with one, one only, meaning guys! – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 16:55
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    The jokes work precisely because "I play a little piano" is a perfectly natural way to say "I play piano a little." – David K Jan 31 '23 at 17:34
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    Idioms don't have to make sense anyway: trip the light fantastic. – Weather Vane Jan 31 '23 at 20:38
  • @Fattie I must disagree. Yes, the basic meaning of "A play a little X" is "I play X, but as a relativly low-skilled player (not always a raw beginner)". But this phrsing is very often used in an ironic understatement by soemoen who is in fact very skillful, something like Goren saying "I play a little bridge", Bobby Fishier saying "I play a little chess" or Vladimir Horowitz "I play a little violin". This ironic, self-deprecatory use is, I think, actually more common than the straight-forward use, which makes the phrase significantly ambiguous. – David Siegel Feb 02 '23 at 15:45
  • Hi David. (i) you feel that the sarcastic-humorous use (as in my example about the well-known guitarist) is used more than the "straight" use. (ii) that's perfectly reasonable, i don't happen to agree, i think it's about equal, but whatever (iii) every native english speaker knows what it means (and indeed, hence) what the sarcastic-humorous use means. (iv) the ambiguity KABuhr incorrectly mentions is the supposed ambiguity between "low skill" and "low time" {Aside: there's also the silly "physically tiny piano" ambgty}. (v) issues (i) (ii) (iii) have no connection in any way to (iv). My take! – Fattie Feb 02 '23 at 17:14
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To play a little piano (and play piano a little - the position of the adverbial element makes no difference) is relatively "formal" compared to, say, I play the piano a bit.

It's inherently ambiguous whether the intended sense is not often or not expertly (or both, but rest assured no-one would think you meant a small piano! :)

FumbleFingers
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    I don’t really agree with the first paragraph here. To me, the position makes more of a difference in formality than the choice of little or bit. “I play the piano a little/a bit” are both more formal to me than “I play a little piano” – and especially than “I play a bit of piano”, which would be the least formal to me. I fully agree with the second paragraph, though. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 31 '23 at 14:03
  • I don't really recognize your distinction based on the position of *a little. I wrote "makes no* difference" because we're getting down to fine nuances that even native speakers couldn't all agree on, so on a learners' site might be counterproductive to say "makes little* difference". But your ear for English is as good as anyone's, so I'll happily engage with the issue in comments... – FumbleFingers Jan 31 '23 at 15:28
  • ...to my ear, it's the absence of an article before *piano* that makes most difference (including *the* seems far more natural / informal to me). And it's "impossible" (unless you're a TEFL student! :) to say I play a little the* piano* or I play a bit the* piano, so I'm left with the general impression that versions with the adverbial element last* are more formal (because only they allow the more formal phrasing with the article). Plus I'm unshakeable that *a bit* is informal compared to *a little*, so my net perspective is more or less the opposite of yours! – FumbleFingers Jan 31 '23 at 15:38
  • I agree that bit is less formal than little – the only difference is that, to me, the position trumps that difference. So I would rank them this way from most to least formal: I play piano a little > I play piano a bit > I play the piano a little > I play the piano a bit > I play a little piano > I play a bit of piano. With that said, I would find all of them perfectly natural in normal conversation – just perhaps the first pairs slightly out of character from a South London teen and the last pairs slightly out of character for a Mayfair socialite. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 31 '23 at 15:53
  • (I hadn’t actually noticed that you’d left out the article in the more formal example in the answer – I’d only seen the little vs bit difference. I agree that leaving out the article is definitely more formal.) – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 31 '23 at 15:55
  • It seems like we agree on the difference between *the* and , and between *little* and *bit. So it's mainly down to what if any difference it makes if we put the adverb immediately* after the "bare verb" OR we treat *play [the] piano* as a kind of "phrasal verb" for the purposes of adverbial modification. I wonder if that's been specifically asked about before, either here or on ELU. – FumbleFingers Jan 31 '23 at 16:24
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As Yan.Yurkin says, "I play a little piano" sounds as if your piano is small. We (in UK) would say,

I can play the piano a little.

or

I can play the piano a bit.

Or you could say,

I can play the piano, but only simple stuff/things/pieces/songs.

People (especially, I think, in the US) sometimes omit the "the": I play piano...

Old Brixtonian
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    I can't say I agree with you. A little piano isn't a thing that commonly exists. It is common for people to play some small amount of piano, but it is exceedingly rare for people to skillfully play a diminutive instrument. – fabspro Jan 29 '23 at 13:48
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    @fabspro on the other hand, there are toy pianos that are in little sizes. I'd imagine that thing instead of a real-size piano when hearing this sentence. – Andrew T. Jan 29 '23 at 14:09
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    "I play a little piano" is exactly how people in the UK would indicate they play piano but not to any great standard. – deep64blue Jan 29 '23 at 21:06
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    @deep64blue - I wouldn't say exactly is accurate, as I would never ever say that (and never have)... I'd say the phrases suggested in the answer or more likely, "I can play the piano a little bit" - and yes, I'm an old (southern) Brit who can play the piano a little bit, but not particularly well. – Greenonline Jan 29 '23 at 23:36
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    @deep64blue - I make a living as a composer. Most London cab drivers bringing me home from music studios late at night ask what I've been doing. I tell them, and then often ask if they themselves are musical. I do the same when someone I've just met asks what I do. The reply is sometimes as I said in my answer, but it is never "I play a little piano". If anyone ever said "I play a little piano" I would assume he or she was American (possibly Schroeder, or was speaking like an American. – Old Brixtonian Jan 30 '23 at 01:10
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    Interesting. It wouldn't sound that way to me (American who spent three years in England as a boy). If you Brits don't often say "I play piano" it would make sense that it sounds that way to you. In the US, "I play a little piano" would have to have significant context to be taken as a reference to the size of the piano. As in "Do you play a big piano? No, I play a little one." Otherwise, it would be taken to have the usual meaning of "I play a bit of piano." – BobRodes Jan 30 '23 at 04:45
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    I think essentially all native speakers would understand "I play a little piano" to mean not being an advanced player, even if many native speakers may not say that personally. It does indeed sound like playing a small piano though, and this could be an intentionally-humorous interpretation. Note that one would typically say "I play [the] piano", not "I play a piano". "I play a little piano" as in a small piano, would be specifying which type of piano you play, rather than establishing the fact that you play piano at all (also, "I play [the] little piano" would sound very odd). – NotThatGuy Jan 30 '23 at 10:25
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    @fabspro the point is that "I [verb] a little [noun]" normally means that the [noun] you [verb] is not very big, and you would have to use context to figure out that this case is (probably) an exeption. Whereas "I [verb] [noun] a little" normally means that you don't do it very well. – Especially Lime Jan 30 '23 at 10:29
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    @EspeciallyLime I don't agree with you - but there is a subtlety that you are not emphasising. The sentence "I [verb] a little [noun] in the piano sense, refers to a particular type of noun - for example, I play piano, I play golf, I play badminton. Adding 'a little' in this situation is an unambiguous reference to frequency - it would be absurd to think that 'I play a little golf' means you play miniature golf, or 'I play a little badminton' means you play miniaturised shuttlecock... – fabspro Jan 30 '23 at 11:09
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    @fabspro Those aren't a great comparisons, because there can certainly exist such a thing as "a little piano", whereas there cannot exist such a thing as "a little golf" or "a little badminton" - those aren't countable nouns, but "piano" is one. Those are more comparable to "music" instead of "piano". If someone were to ask "How big is the piano you play?", a perfectly normal response would be "I play a little piano", referring to its size. It's just that it doesn't generally mean that. – NotThatGuy Jan 30 '23 at 12:05
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    ''I play a little piano'' taken literally sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch. – Hollis Williams Jan 30 '23 at 15:31
  • @EspeciallyLime Not true at all. Normally you have to use context to figure out whether a little is an adverbial of degree or a determiner + adjective modifying the following noun. In “I have a little son”, it is unambiguously the latter; in “I speak a little German”, it is unambiguously the latter. In both cases, context is required to tell. When the verb is one describing an ability, particularly an acquired one (knowing, speaking, playing, painting, etc.), the adverbial interpretation becomes the most likely, unless further context makes it otherwise. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 31 '23 at 01:24
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    @JanusBahsJacquet The fact remains that moving "a little" to the end is clearer because it can only be adverbial and you don't have to use context. – Especially Lime Jan 31 '23 at 06:34
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    @OldBrixtonian most native UK English speakers would say "I play a small piano" if they were referring to the size of the instrument. – deep64blue Jan 31 '23 at 09:56
  • This answer is completely wrong. It's absolutely idiomatic to say "I play a little piano" in all English speaking countries. – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 13:03
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for me (and I know I do think differently to everyone else) it sounds like false modesty. Imagine the scene

guy with friends talking to woman at a party

Mick: ask Fred he plays the piano
Fred: Oh I only play a little
Woman: oh please play a tune for us

Fred gets up walks to the piano and plays perfect Rachmaninov.
Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No. 3

WendyG
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  • The most useful answer here. – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 13:03
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    There is a tradition among accomplished musicians, at least in America, to downplay one's own skill. "I play a little piano" could be said by someone who is quite good and nobody would think anything strange about it. – Wayne Conrad Jan 31 '23 at 23:27
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I'm by far not a native speaker but just to make it less ambiguous with playing a small sized pianos i'd rather say

I play a piano a little.

Yan.Yurkin
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    Hi Yan.Yurkin. Welcome to ELL! We would generally say "play the piano" in this context. – Old Brixtonian Jan 29 '23 at 05:23
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    @OldBrixtonian we normally don't use an article at all. I play piano a little. – Chenmunka Jan 29 '23 at 08:50
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    @Chenmunka - UK uses the article, US doesn't. – Kate Bunting Jan 29 '23 at 09:03
  • @KateBunting The article is still perfectly common in American English; it's just not strictly required. Did you play a little baseball after work? Does anybody play a little guitar at parties? Can we play a little poker tonight? Would you play a little Chopin? I used to play a little piccolo but playing the flute was easier. :) – tchrist Jan 29 '23 at 15:34
  • @Chenmunka - Sorry! I forgot the "in the UK." It was in my answer but not my comment. – Old Brixtonian Jan 30 '23 at 01:19
  • @tchrist You mean there's a piccolo that isn't little? :D – BobRodes Jan 30 '23 at 04:48
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In Australia, a reference to playing 'a little' piano means you play infrequently. But it says nothing about the musicians' level of skill.

A native speaker could say I can play a little bit of piano or I can play the piano a little bit. The key point is the word 'can' - it refers to capability.

fabspro
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    I disagree with this. In my world, it speaks to the level of skill, not the frequency of play. Of course, the two go together, assuming the pianist has any talent . :) – BobRodes Jan 30 '23 at 04:50
  • I agree with this (answer, disagreeing with the view described by the prior comment, though not meaning to disagree that BobRodes's viewpoint may differ). The examples given in this answer are more likely referring to frequency, although could also mean skill. While I also agree with multiple points of K.A. Buhr's answer, and so using the word "bit" (as shown in this answer) is not strictly necessary, using the word "bit" (as shown in both bolded examples in this answer) does make things more clear. – TOOGAM Jan 30 '23 at 05:59
  • @TOOGAM Why do you imply that your view is "more likely" the correct one? Really, neither of us have any idea whether our semantic interpretation is the more common one. – BobRodes Jan 30 '23 at 06:16
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    @BobRodes It definitely could mean both in your part of the world - I take the view that lack of skill and infrequent playing go hand in hand, and the difference is rarely critical! – fabspro Jan 30 '23 at 07:17
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    @fabspro Just so. I play a little piano, a little less than I did when I was majoring in music 40 years ago, and never enough to be a pro. :) – BobRodes Jan 30 '23 at 12:00
  • @BobRodes : I didn't say anything to identify me as the arbiter who gets to determine greater correctness between my view or your view, nor did I mean to imply anything along those lines. In fact, I think I went out of my way to acknowledge that your viewpoint may be different than mine. – TOOGAM Jan 31 '23 at 07:30
  • This is completely wrong. – Fattie Jan 31 '23 at 13:03
  • @Fattie happy to be corrected, but please do share your sources. – fabspro Feb 02 '23 at 09:04
  • @Fattie anything? it's easy to make things up but clearly you're at a loss to back yourself in – fabspro Mar 19 '23 at 13:23
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As the others have mentioned, I play a little piano may mislead the person you are talking to and confuse them. The message you want to convey is

to mean I am not an advanced player

So, the sentence I play a little piano is not correct in this case.

It is better if you use the sentences given below instead

  • I play piano a little.
  • I can play piano a little.
  • I play piano, but I am still at the basics.
  • I play piano, though my skills are mediocre.

If you have started piano recently, you can say the following:

  • I started playing piano just a while back.

If you played the piano long ago, but have forgotten the basics over time, you can say the following:

  • I played the piano years ago, so I would need to practice playing it again for I have forgotten some of the basics.

Hope this answer helped you.

Aakash Mutum
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    I'm sorry but "I play a little piano" does not imply that you are playing a small sized piano, except if the speaker is a performing comedian. – fabspro Jan 29 '23 at 13:50
  • @fabspro I wonder what else that means? – Aakash Mutum Jan 29 '23 at 14:17
  • This is wrong in so many ways. – Chenmunka Jan 29 '23 at 17:30
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    This is like saying that "Lionel Messi plays a little football" means that the football he uses is smaller than normal. I don't think it means that at all, to anyone. It's fine to say that Ronnie O'Sullivan plays a little snooker, for example, and there's no such thing as a larger or smaller snooker. – BobRodes Jan 30 '23 at 04:52
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    I'm upvoting this answer, not because I agree with it. However, I think it is useful (which is what the hovertext indicates an upvote is intended to mean). This does show that there are some different perspectives/interpretation. So, like fabspro's answer, "a bit of piano" is more clear, but just saying "I play a little piano" can seem a bit ambiguous, enough that some people may interpret thingsa bit different. – TOOGAM Jan 30 '23 at 06:03
  • @BobRodes: While there are differnet sizes of pool/billiards tables, there are also different sizes of pianos. There's (normal? standard) pianos, and grand pianos. When I was a child, I had a little synthesizer. If in a school with kindergarteners playing cheaper instraments and older children with pricier instraments, I would totally think that a person saying they play a "little piano" could make a lot of sense, at least if/when such context may be known. As another example, I know young children may prefer small basketballs, so specifying equipment size seems (at least potentially) sensible – TOOGAM Jan 30 '23 at 06:07
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    @TOOGAM You may have noticed that I said "In the US, 'I play a little piano' would have to have significant context to be taken as a reference to the size of the piano." Your example sort of makes my point, doesn't it? Sure, I could totally think that given your significant context, "little piano" could refer to its size. Similarly, a six-year-old who "plays a little violin" probably plays a quarter-size violin. An average human who plays a little violin probably plays the violin a little. So yeah, context. – BobRodes Jan 30 '23 at 06:26
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    @BobRodes absolutely - and in the context of an informal chat about piano playing, the ambiguity doesn't really matter because playing infrequently and having a lower level of skill or seriousness are all (in effect) the same. To be sure, I would struggle to imagine someone really meaning a 'small' piano if they said 'a little piano' unless there was context to suggest that might be a realistic possiblity... – fabspro Jan 30 '23 at 07:20
  • @BobRodes: I tried to provide lots of context to provide clarity for what might be thought of as an extreme example. Consider some other statements with a bit less context. "I'm going to check the 'Electronics' and 'Toys' departments to find a little piano." "Little Johnny enjoys his birthday gift. All day long, he plays his little piano." "I have a little piano that I play." "I play on a little piano." "I play a little piano." It sounds like you're a musician. I wasn't trying to be very music-centric, but considered more general case of potential usage. All this is only meant to be IMHO – TOOGAM Jan 31 '23 at 07:36
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    @TOOGAM Yes, I understand. So, "I play on a little piano" means the piano is little. "I play a little piano" means this to you first, and "I play some piano" second. For me, the reverse is true. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. – BobRodes Jan 31 '23 at 19:31