Both of these answers are a way of asking someone if they were a musician before now.
"Were you a musician in the past?" - This answer may be more formal, and is asking perhaps if the person was a professional in the past.
"Have you ever played a musical instrument?" - This answer is more casual and is simply asking if a person has ever learnt an instrument, either when they were a child or in more recent years.
どちらも、相手が以前ミュージシャンをしていたのか尋ねる言い方です。
"Were you a musician in the past?"（昔ミュージシャンをしていたのですか）
- こちらの回答の方がフォーマルかもしれません。以前にプロのミュージシャンだったのか尋ねています。
"Have you ever played a musical instrument?"（楽器を演奏したことはありますか）
- こちらの回答の方がカジュアルです。シンプルに、（子どもの頃、あるいはもっと最近に）楽器を習ったことがあるか尋ねています。
The two questions you see provided above are excellent ways to ask someone what they used to do. In the second question you will see the term at one time. This means previously or in the past. This term is used in our everyday conversation and is appropriate for informal settings. It would make a great addition to your vocabulary.
上記二つの質問は、以前していたことを尋ねる素晴らしい表現です。
二つ目の質問には'at one time'という表現が使われています。これは「以前に、昔は」という意味です。この表現は日常会話で使われ、インフォーマルな場面に適しています。ぜひボキャブラリーに加えておいてください。
Did you use to be a musician?
** This question can also be asked: In the past, were you a musician?
Were you a musician?
** This question may be asking if this person played an instrument professionally, but can also refer to an to playing an instrument as an amateur (for fun)
Did you use to be a musician?（昔ミュージシャンだったのですか）
** これは次のように聞くこともできます：In the past, were you a musician?
Were you a musician?（ミュージシャンだったのですか）
** この質問は「プロの演奏家だったのか」と「趣味で楽器を弾いていたのか」のどちらの意味にもなります。
Do you play music' - This is a broad question. Its good to ask if you know they have a background in music but don't know if they play music or what style they play.
'Can you play any instruments?' - This is a good follow up question as its also a broad question but after you have found out if they play music you can ask them what instrument to give you more of an idea.
'Are you in a band?' - This is a good way to maybe research there songs or become a new fan of the band.
Do you play music' （音楽はしますか？）これは、広い意味の質問です。相手に音楽の経験があるかを聞くのにはぴったりですが、どんなスタイルの音楽をするのかはおそらくわからないでしょう。
'Can you play any instruments?' （何か楽器はしますか？）は、これも広い意味の質問ですが、相手が音楽をすると分かった後で、どんな楽器をするのかなどを聞くことができる質問です。
'Are you in a band?'（バンドをしていますか？）は、歌を調べたり、新しいバンドを発見できるかもしれない質問です。
To ask if someone was a musician previously, there are a couple of suggestions above. You can use the question form of the verb 'to be' in the simple past - as in the first example - or, as it is a question, the auxiliary verb 'do' plus 'used to' as you are referring to a regular or repeated activity in the past.
私の英訳には「以前」という before を入れました。
それは「昔は」「以前」「前に」「今と違って」というヌアンスをつけるためです。
そして、were you a musician （「あなたはミュージシャンだった」の疑問形）
before?（いつ？「以前」と答える）
がまとめた Were you a musician before? という英文になります！
^.^
If someone is very good at playing an instrument or singing you might think they have done it before so might ask them 'did you use to be a musician?' or 'were you a musician before?'
楽器や歌がすごくうまい人がいたら、「前にやっていたことがあるのかな」と気になるかもしれません。
ですから、
'did you use to be a musician?'（ミュージシャンをしていたのですか）
または
'were you a musician before?'（ミュージシャンをしていたのですか）
と言えます。
when asking someone if they have ever been a musician before you can say something like "have you ever been a musician before?" or "were you ever a musician at any point in time?". we use words like "were you" or "did you" which are past tense words to express that we re asking about something in the past.
以前ミュージシャンをしていたことがあるか確認するなら、次のように言えます。
"have you ever been a musician before?"（ミュージシャンをしていたことはありますか）
"were you ever a musician at any point in time?"（ミュージシャンをしていたことはありますか）
過去のことについて尋ねるときには、"were you" や "did you" など、過去形の言葉を使います。
"Previously" refers to a continuous action in the past. We can use that because we are asking if there exists a period in which they were a musician. I hope that this helps. :)
To refer to something that happened a while ago, you can say "before" or "in the past."
If you're referring to someone doing something in the past, you use the sentence "were you..." So, to ask if someone was a musician, for example, you can say "were you a musician before?" or "were you a musician in the past?"
しばらく前に起こったことを表すには、 "before"（以前）や "in the past."（昔）という言葉を使います。
人が昔何かをしていたことを伝えたいなら、 "were you..."（あなたは～でしたか？）と聞くことができます。ですので例えば相手がミュージシャンだったかどうかを尋ねるには、"were you a musician before?"（以前はミュージシャンでしたか？） や "were you a musician in the past?"（昔ミュージシャンでしたか？）と聞くことができます。
Wereはbeの過去形。
You were a musician「あなたは音楽家でした」という過去の出来事を表す文章でWereを口頭に持ってくることで質問に変えることができます。
You were a musician?という風にニュアンスを変えることでこの文章自体を質問として使うことができますが、この場合「あなたは音楽家だったの？！」という驚きを隠せないという意味でとらわれるともいます。なので、普通に事実を確認する質問をしたいのなら、were you...を先に持ってきた方がいいです。
used to be...は「～だった」「かつて～だった」という意味。
疑問形で使う場合はusedがuseにかわり、did you use...? となります。
これは助動詞と過去形-edが同じ文章でつかうことができないことからusedがuseに変化します。
A musician is a person who plays or makes music, for example a guitar player, singer, music producer, etc. When you ask the question: did you used to be a musician? The part "used to" is referring to that persons past, so you are asking the question whether they carried out this activity in the past.
Here are three examples of how to ask this question to someone to find out if they used to have a different profession or be something else in the past. Notice in the first two examples we can either use, "in the past," or, "before," to refer to moments in the past tense. In addition, the third example uses the verb expression, "used to be," to have the same effect.
I was wondering if you were a musician/artist in the past.
When you want to ask someone if they used to be a musician (or something) before; then you may ask in the following ways:
-Were you a musician/artist before?
-I was wondering if you were a musician/artist in the past.
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