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And "There is a piano in the lobby."

I see this as consistent. When you say "I play the piano" you are really saying, "There are many instruments – banjo, trumpet, clarinet, and piano. I play the piano". Saying "I play a piano" is also correct. But the inference is that you are referring to one particular piano.

In the sentence "There is a piano in the lobby" you are saying "There are many objects in the lobby. Among them is a piano, one of many in the world".

But it's still where the generic, simplistic application of the rule of "the for distinct, a for generic" fails.

When "you can play the piano", you can play any piano. When "there is a piano in the lobby", it's distinctively a very specific one.

So I would go on a limb and claim: whether you use the or a is also philosophical in nature :)

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