Piano bar

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"Open Mic" piano bar - musician Tom Saputo at Squire Rockwell's - Annandale, Virginia

A piano bar (also known as a piano lounge) consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician, located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, or office building lobby. Usually the pianist receives tips in a jar or basket on or near the piano, especially from patrons requesting a song. Some piano bars feature a baby grand or grand piano surrounded by stools for patrons (or, somewhat humorously, an upright piano covered by a counter that makes it appear to be a grand piano). Others have a bar surrounding the piano or keyboard.

There are several different types of piano bars:

"instrumental only": the professional piano/keyboard player plays strictly instrumental music, which is usually classical, semi-classical, or "easy listening"; this type of piano bar is often found in hotel lobby lounges or "fine dining" restaurants.
"only the musician sings": the professional piano/keyboard player sings to his/her accompaniment, usually on microphone, but no other singers are generally allowed.
"the musician and waitpersons sing": the professional musician sings and also invites waitpersons to sing solos.
"sing-along": patrons surrounding the piano/keyboard sing as a group, usually without any microphones, often preferring "standards" and "show tunes", or very old songs like "Down By The Old Mill Stream", "Bicycle Built For Two", etc., but in some cases pop or rock.
"dueling pianos": usually on stage with two grand pianos, each played by a professional player who sings and entertains; humor and audience participation are prevalent; usually these types of piano bars have substantial sound systems, and most of the songs performed are rock and roll, "classic rock", Top 40, R&B, or country, sometimes played by request. This format originated in late 1986 at Alley Cats in Dallas, TX, and was based on the old-style dueling pianos still found at Pat O'Brien's in New Orleans, LA.^{[dubious – discuss]} Popular clubs like Pete's dueling pianos, Shout House dueling pianos, Ernie Biggs Rock & Roll Dueling Piano Bar, Rum Runners, Jellyrolls and Sing Sing perform high-energy interactive sing-along shows, while Howl at the Moon Piano Bar features full performance shows by the pianists. Popular dueling pianists include Roll Over Beethoven from Kansas City.
"open mic": individual patrons sing (on microphone) to the accompaniment of the professional musician; in some ways, this type of piano bar is like karaoke, except that the music is live and dynamic, and there are usually no lyrics available (although some piano bar players do supply some lyrics); like karaoke, the songs performed may cover a wide, eclectic range ("show tunes", "standards" from the 1920's forward, jazz, country, R&B, rock'n'roll, blues, folk, soul, disco, hip-hop, etc.); the patron singers are usually called to the microphone in a rotating order; often, each singer is allowed 2 or 3 songs each time he/she is called to perform.
"combination": some piano bars include the characteristics of two or more of the above, either on different nights or combined on the same night. For instance, at a "sing along" piano bar, a patron or wait person might sing a solo from time to time.

Before becoming famous, Billy Joel sometimes worked as a piano bar performer. His classic hit "Piano Man" is based on his experiences as a piano bar player.