The original list started by Dean Crawford, and is now being expanded using Harmonet and other sources:

• Afterglow -* A cast party after a show.

• AHSOW* - Ancient Harmonious Society Of Woodshedders.

• AHSOWHAT -* Ancient Harmonious Society Of Woodshedders Harboring Apathetic Tendencies....just kidding (by Dean Crawford)!

• Ambigesturous* - The ability to perform the choreography from either side of the risers.

• Balance* - the relative volume or intensity of the four voices (GA-Gage Averill)

• BarberChop* - An energetic hand motion used to cut off the quartet at the end of a song.

• Barbershop Brats* - Children of barbershoppers, which often become members, a precious commodity.

• Barbershop Squat* - a physical stance at the end of a song that looks amateurish and hokey.

• Barbershop Widow/Widower* - The spouse of a very active barbershopper, who doesn't enjoy the hobby themselves.

• Barberteens* - Teenaged children of barbershoppers, the smartest of all.

• Barbertots -* Young children of barbershoppers, also a precious commodity.

• Barrel tone -* full-voiced vocal production (GA)

• Bell Chord -* notes sung on successive beats as in "Bye Bye Blues" by the Suntones.

• Belt -* Sing loudly.

• Big Fat Duck -* A lot of resonance.

• Bipartite/Tripartite -* Able to sing multiple voice parts.

• Bisectional -* A person that can sing more than one voice part... hopefully, not simultaneously.

• Blastissimo -* the volume level at which most quartets think a tag must be sung.

• Blead -* A fifth voice part consisting of part lead and part baritone, usually sung by a member who has been absent for a while.

• Blend* - unlike "balance" this refers not to volume but to pitch. A proper blend maximizes the coincidence of overtones such that the chord "rings" (GA)

• Blocking* - (see "slab")

• Blossom -* an arranging technique by which four voices begin in unison and expand to a four-part chord in contrary motion (i.e. one goes lower, the next higher, the next lower, and the last higher) (GA)

• Borneo Barbershop -* An exercise where the bass is sung an octave high and the tenor an octave low.

• Breathing Dips -* Singers who breathe where they are not supposed to.

• Busting a chord -* Same as "peeling paint" or "cracking a chord".

• Cascade -* A musical device where a unison note spreads to form a chord, also called "waterfall".

• Catch Breath* - A very quick breath (often taken after forgetting to breath in the correct place).

• Chestnut -* An old, familiar song.

• Chinese 7th* - The 2nd inversion of a 7th chord, where the tenor note is under the lead note. Also known in some circles as the "Love Chord".

• Christmas tree -* a melodic run (as in up and down a sequence of notes) performed by any one of the voices as an embellishment (GA)

• Chordgasm/Chordasm -* The climax of musical stimulation often resulting in goose bumps and raised hairs. See Eargasm.

• Chorditorium -* A convention afterglow where non-qualifying quartets can strut their stuff.

• Chordus Interruptus -* When the director stops the chorus just before a paint-peeling tag.

• Chord worshiping -* Holding a chord longer that necessary just to enjoy it.

• Chorus Dips -* Singers who do exactly the opposite of what the director asks.

• Circle of Fifths -* The name given to an arrangement of the twelve keys, situated such that each successive note is a fifth above (or below, if the movement is in the opposite direction) the one that precedes it. Hence starting with C: G, D, A, and F (or, in the opposite direction, from E: A, D, G, and C) (GA)

• Clam* - A chord that isn't tuned or voiced properly.

• Cookie -* a pitchpipe.

• Cracking a chord -* same as "busting a chord".

• Crank -* Sing loudly.

• Crow* - A self-confessed non-singer who performs mundane chores nobody else wants to do. See “Invaluable”.

• Diction Dips -* Singers who exaggerate the hard consonants.

• Diphthong Dips -* Singers who over-emphasize the diphthongs.

• Divorced voicing -* a voicing of a chord that leaves the tenor or bass (i.e. the outer parts) far removed from the other voices (GA)

• Down the tiles* - A phrase used to describe when a singer in a chorus is supposed to turn his body straight toward the audience. Also called "Mirror Image".

• Drop -* a common arranging technique in which the bass drops an octave on the last note of the song (GA)

• Duck* - Resonance.

• Eagles -* A politically correct term for "Crows".

• Ear Candy -* An audible overtone or harmonic.

• Eargasm -* The climax of musical stimulation often resulting in goose bumps and raised hairs. See “Chordgasm”.

• Echo -* an arranging effect whereby words or phrases are repeated by different voices (GA)

• Embellishment -* any arranging effect, technique, or device that enlivens the texture of the harmony, e.g. swipe, modulation, cascade effect, echo (GA)

• Energy Cube -* A teaching device used by Mr. Larry Ajer, to focus sound and energy in response to an interpretive plan.

• Expanded sound -* this is the most popular term for the vibrant group sound that results from the production and reinforcement of overlapping overtones. This effect is not unlike that of additional singers on higher notes (see "lock-and-ring") (GA)

• Everglow -* A smaller, more private party that takes place after an afterglow.

• Fifth Wheel -* Singing along with/near a quartet, but not one of the foursome.

• Float -* Blending a part into a chord gracefully, usually tenor.

• Floymen -* doing whatever the director wants at a given point in a song. The Floymen may or may not include either embellishment or musical activity.

• Gang Singing -* A collection of singers that are not an organized unit.

• Garbage Part -* A negative term for the baritone part.

• Gay* - Cheerful

• Glee-club style -* arrangements that place the melody in the highest voice and lack the emphasis on golden-era songs, with their dominant seventh chords. The diatonic harmony of glee-club singing often requires doubling of parts (GA)

• Glimmer -* An after, after, afterglow.

• Going for the bird -* Producing overtones.

• Green Gas -* A vapor that forms when a situation gets too intense.

• Grigger -* John Devine's word for an Eargasm.

• Groaner -* A bad joke, story, or pun.

• Grundy -* Same as Scissors Movement.

• Gut-Buster -* A robust uptune.

• Hang Ten* - Standing on the risers with ten toes over the edge.

• Hanger -* a note, long in duration, sung usually by a lead singer, around which a tag is formed.

• Harmonasties -* Harmonet posters who incite conflict.

• Harmony Hair -* The use of wiglets, falls, and excessive lacquer products, to achieve that "Unit" look.

• Headlights Up!* (Also "Spotlight the Balcony") - An instruction by a director to prepare one's instrument for singing. (Primarily the chest)

• Helmet Hair -* Too much hairspray, akin to "Harmony Hair".

• Homophony -* a term used to describe polyphonic music in which all voices move collectively at the same basic pace. The best known type of homophony consists of melody with chordal accompaniment. Barbershop singing is typically homophonic.

• Honker -* a person who sings loudly and/or in a garish manner, often a bass singer. (See also Laser Lungs)

• Honking Range* - That specific place in one's vocal range where he can sing loudly with ease.

• Hospitality Room -* A party room at a convention for informal entertainment, socializing, and stale pretzels.

• Hum Spot -* The placement of one's voice that makes the mask resonate.

• Intonation -* measure of accurate pitch in performance. Subtle variations in intonation can be valuable as an expressive tool and can be used to generate tension and excitement and to provide character to melody (GA)

• Intonationally Challenged -* A Rashleighism for a poor vocalist.

• Just intonation -* an interval tuned such that it’s acoustically pure. Typically, intervals that are justly intoned are tuned to the lowest corresponding partial in the overtone series (GA)

• Kibber -* An endearing term for a barbershopper that prefers to Keep It Barbershop!

• Kipp-It -* An instruction to a tenor to belt out a note in full voice.

• Laser Lungs -* a singer, usually a tenor, who sings high notes very loudly and out of balance.

• Lead Dodging -* The art of woodshedding the baritone part, also called Lead Avoidance.

• Leaner -* a person that does not have the courage or ability to sing on his/her own, or is not well rehearsed in the music.

• Lock-in -* sound that emerges when group vocal production is properly executed (with matched vowel sounds, intensity, intonation, and vocal quality) and the group achieves a pure and piercing tone (see "expanded sound" and "unit sound") (GA)

• Lock-and-ring sound* - similar to lock-in, this term also denotes the resultant harmony, which has a ringing quality rich in overtones (see "expanded sound" and "unit sound") (GA)

• Love Chord* - See "Chinese 7th".

• Mask* - The area just above and including a singer's eyes. If the voice is focused there, a bright sound should be produced.

• Mike Testers -* A quartet or chorus which sings at the beginning of a contest to ensure the sound systems performance.

• Mirror Image* - See "Down the tiles".

• Mud* - Unwanted sound coming from a chorus section, due to various problems such as wrong notes, wrong words, wrong vowel shapes, wrong volume level, or wrong timbre.

• Oh Yeah -* An utterance from the chorus, when the director says "for the 2000th time, you're supposed to get soft here".

• Oh Yeah Song -* A song with an unfamiliar verse and a very familiar chorus.

• Onion Skin -* A minute adjustment in pitch.

• Opus Interruptus -* When the hotel security guard stops you in the middle of a song, usually on Sunday morning.

• Overtone -* a harmonic produced by proper intonation, tuning, and vowel formation.

• Patter -* A verbose variation on the theme of a refrain as in "Down Our Way", also jokes and stuff between songs.

• Peeling Paint -* Locking and ringing a chord.

• Pick-up Quartet -* any four singers, not an established quartet, singing a song they commonly know. I.E. Barberpole Cat song.

• Ping* - Focused, bright ringing sound.

• Pitch It Higher and Sing It Louder* - A sarcastic phrase directed to a foursome who are already singing too high and too loud.

• Post -* a note, long in duration, sung usually by a lead singer, around which a tag is formed.

• Push-out Quartet -* Four guys start a song and you replace a given singer with yourself.

• Reinforced sound* – see “ringing chord”

• Ringing chord* - a chord in which the various partials or overtones present in the voices produce audible overtones and thus a peculiar ringing sensation. Over the years, this sensation has been described by barbershop singers and theorists as a combination tone, a bell tone, a difference tone, reinforced sound, expanded sound, or a summation tone (GA)

• Rip Face -* Imagining a handle on the face of your audience and ripping their faces off. Yuck!

• Riser Rat -* any chorus member who is not in the front row.

• Round Robin* - An activity wherein four or more woodshedders sit in a circle and progressively rotate voice parts.*Rule #6* - "Never take yourself too seriously."

• S.P*. - Old judging category called Stage Presence and/or a term for choreography.

• Scissors Movement -* Two voice parts that cross each other, while the other two voices sustain, leading to an inversion of the chord.

• Scoop -* a generally frowned upon vocal technique where the singer, starting below the target pitch, quickly slides upward to the desired pitch.

• Screamer* - A very high and loud tag.

• Shoulder-Raiser -* A note that a singer doesn't quite reach in pitch, causing the listener to raise a shoulder in response.

• Schwartzondo -* whatever musical embellishment the director desires at a given point in a song.

• Singlish -* A method of singing a song as if one was speaking the part, phonetically connective.

• Singout –* an engagement or a gig for a chorus or quartet, sometimes preferred over Performance which it is.

• Skunk Song -* A melody essentially useless for woodshedding purposes, because of an existing familiar arrangement.

• Slab -* to sing slowly through a measure chord by chord, also called "blocking".

• Sleeping Around -* Secretly singing with three other people in order to establish a new/better quartet.

• Spank -* Great vocal execution as in "Boy that lead spanks!"

• Stage presence* – a competition judging category that comprises costuming, gesture, comportment, poise, and showmanship. (GA)

• Stagger Breathing* - A chorus breathing technique, where singers in the same section take breaths at different times to make it sound as if no one has taken a breath. (Also known as "Stealth Breathing".)

• Stealth Breathing* - See "Stagger Breathing".

• Sweet Spot -* the optimum range in one vocal range.

• Swipe* - movement from one chord to another on a single word or syllable while one or another of the singers (often the lead) holds a single note. A swipe is a harmonic technique used to embellish melodically stable movement or held notes where a fermata might otherwise govern, or where there are naturally occurring pauses in the melody (GA)

• Tag -* The ending of a song, too often over-arranged.

• Tag Quartet -* Four singers begin a song and one by one are replaced by a new singer, tagged out if you will.

• Tear-jerker -* A tender, sentimental ballad that evokes emotion.

• Tiddley -* a musical embellishment usually by a baritone. (Usually due to not knowing what his part should be!)

• Tiddler* - One who tiddles (usually the bari).

• Toe-Tapper -* An uptune with great rhythmic pulse.

• Train Wreck -* When one or more parts sing a wrong note, the resulting chord sounds like railway calamity. Also, when a song comes to a screeching halt due to a series of improperly tuned chords (see "clam").

• Transsectional -* Same as Bisectional.

• Tune Bucket -* A vessel which some people cannot carry.

• Undertone* - An additional note in a chord (beyond the four being sung) that manifests itself somewhere below the top note being sung. This phenomenon seems to be much rarer than the occurrence of the "overtone".

• Unit sound* – an ideal of quartet or choral sound production that results from balance, blend, intonation, controlled vowel production, and expression. Attention to all of these factors should produce a tightly unified sound with a strong overtone component (GA)

• VLQ -* Very large quartet or mini-chorus, if you will.

• Wall of Sound -* Seamless, continuous vocalization.

• Waterfall* - see "cascade".

• Whomp-Squeak Ratio* - The ratio of resonance to ping in the voice.

• Woodshed -* To improvise your part in a song, hopefully not melody.

• Yawner -* A song that's performed in a boring manner.

• Yodel-Chord -* A phenomenon in woodshedding, where two voices land on the same note and simultaneously move to the missing part.

• Yodeling -* an attempt to find one proper note, see "woodshedding".