Learn Hardcore Russian: Мой супруг-музыкант часто играет на гитаре дома вечером. - My musician husband often plays the guitar at home in the evening.

You could also write it with commas:
Мой супруг, музыкант, часто играет… – which adds more of a pause and makes музыкант sound like extra, non-essential information.
With the hyphen, it sounds like a tighter fixed description: “my musician spouse / my husband-musician”.

What is the difference between супруг and муж?

Both can mean “husband”, but their usage differs:

муж – the normal, everyday, neutral word for husband.
- Это мой муж. – This is my husband.
супруг – more formal, official, or bookish. Literally “spouse (male)”.
- Often used in documents, official speech, or somewhat elevated style.

Similarly for a wife:

жена – everyday word for wife.
супруга – formal / official word for wife.

So Мой супруг-музыкант… sounds a bit more formal than Мой муж-музыкант….

Why is it мой супруг, not моя супруг?

Because супруг is grammatically masculine.

Masculine singular “my” = мой
Feminine singular “my” = моя

So:

мой супруг – my husband (masc.)
моя супруга – my wife (fem.)
мой музыкант – my (male) musician
моя музыкантка – my (female) musician (using the explicit feminine form)

Even if you think in English “spouse” is gender-neutral, in Russian супруг itself is masculine, so it must take мой, not моя.

If the spouse is a woman, can you still say мой супруг-музыкант?

No. Супруг is a male spouse (husband). For a female spouse you’d use супруга:

Моя супруга-музыкант часто играет на гитаре дома вечером.

Two notes:

музыкант can be used for both men and women, like “musician” in English. It’s a grammatically masculine noun, but can refer to either gender.
If you really want a clearly feminine form, you can say:
- Моя супруга-музыкантка… – my wife is a (female) musician.
  (музыкантка explicitly marks female gender.)

Why is играет used, and not сыграет or поиграет?

Играет is the imperfective aspect (from играть) and is used for:

actions that happen regularly / habitually
ongoing, repeated actions

The adverb часто (“often”) clearly indicates a habitual action, so we use the imperfective:

Он часто играет на гитаре. – He often plays the guitar.

Perfective forms like сыграет / поиграет focus on a single, completed action:

Он сыграет на гитаре вечером. – He will (once) play the guitar in the evening (and finish).
Он поиграет на гитаре вечером. – He’ll play the guitar for a while in the evening.

Those don’t fit the idea of “often”.

Why is it играет на гитаре, not играет гитару?

With musical instruments, Russian normally uses:

играть на + [instrument in the prepositional case]

So:

играть на гитаре – to play the guitar
играть на пианино – to play the piano
играть на скрипке – to play the violin

Using играть гитару is wrong in standard Russian for the meaning “play the guitar”.

Compare this with games and sports, where you use в + accusative:

играть в футбол – to play soccer
играть в шахматы – to play chess

What case is на гитаре, and why is it гитаре and not гитара or гитару?

На гитаре is prepositional case singular:

Nominative (dictionary form): гитара
Prepositional: гитаре

After на in the sense of “on (a musical instrument)” + the verb играть, Russian uses the prepositional case:

на гитаре
на фортепиано
на барабанах (plural: “on the drums”)

So the ending -е in гитаре marks the prepositional case.

Why is it дома, not в доме?

Both exist, but they don’t mean exactly the same:

дома = “at home” (adverb-like form)
- Focuses on the idea of “at my / at our / at someone’s home”.
- Doesn’t need a preposition.
в доме = “in the house / inside the building”
- More literal location inside a particular house.

In this sentence:

играет на гитаре дома вечером = plays the guitar *at home in the evening*
This is the natural way to say it.

If you say в доме, you sound like you’re specifying the physical building rather than the concept of home.

What form and case is вечером, and why not вечер?

Вечером is the instrumental singular form of вечер (evening).

For typical times of day, Russian often uses the instrumental to mean “in the … / at … time”:

утром – in the morning (from утро)
днём – in the daytime / in the afternoon (from день)
вечером – in the evening (from вечер)
ночью – at night (irregular form from ночь)

So:

Он играет вечером. – He plays in the evening.
(Not он играет вечер – that would be ungrammatical.)

You could also say по вечерам (“in the evenings” / “every evening”) for a stronger “regularly” sense:

Он часто играет на гитаре дома по вечерам. – He often plays the guitar at home in the evenings.

Can we change the order дома вечером to вечером дома? Does it change the meaning?

Both orders are grammatically correct and very natural:

…играет на гитаре дома вечером.
…играет на гитаре вечером дома.

The meaning is essentially the same: he plays the guitar at home in the evening.

Subtle nuance:

дома вечером slightly answers “Where? At home. When? In the evening.”
вечером дома slightly answers “When? In the evening. Where? At home.”

But in normal speech, there is no real difference in meaning; both are fine. Russian word order is flexible, especially with adverbs of time and place.

Could the sentence be Мой супруг — музыкант и часто играет на гитаре дома вечером? Is that different from супруг-музыкант?

Yes, you can say:

Мой супруг — музыкант и часто играет на гитаре дома вечером.

Differences:

Structure
- Мой супруг-музыкант часто играет…
  One noun phrase with hyphenated apposition.
- Мой супруг — музыкант и часто играет…
  Two parts linked by — and и:
  - “My spouse is a musician”
  - “and he often plays…”
Emphasis
- супруг-музыкант packs “spouse” + “musician” into a single label: my musician husband.
- супруг — музыкант first identifies him as spouse, then states as a separate fact that he is a musician.

Both are correct; the original just sounds a bit more compact and descriptive.

Why is there no word for “is”? Why don’t you say Мой супруг-музыкант есть…?

In Russian, the verb “to be” (быть) in the present tense is usually omitted in simple “X is Y” sentences:

Он врач. – He is a doctor.
Она дома. – She is at home.
Мой супруг-музыкант… – My spouse is a musician…

Using есть (present tense of “to be”) here sounds either:

very unusual or archaic, or
like you’re strongly emphasizing existence (“there exists…”)

So the natural Russian version is just:

Мой супруг-музыкант часто играет…
(with no explicit “is”).