Luke was the executive producer for both of Kesha's albums, and he also produced 'Timber.' 'After 'Die Young' was pulled from radio stations in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting. Kesha - Timber (American Music Awards) OfficialPitbull ft. Kesha - TimberPitbull Kesha Timber Live AMA'sPitbull Kesha Timber Live American Music.
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Where's the Tab?
Sorry for any confusion here. I can't post my tab of Timber without purchasing a license for the song. There's some other good theory and technical material here for learning the song, however, so read on…
Articulation, Key Choice, Song History
In this lesson, we'll look at Timber, by Pitbull, featuring Kesha. There's been some discussion over exactly what key harp to use, where the song comes from, bending options and articulation.
What key harmonica?
Short answer: for Timber, use an E harp.
Medium answer: if playing along to the Pitbull track, use an E harp. If you're playing it by yourself, solo, you can use any key you want. To play with bent notes, play in the low octave in cross harp. The keys of C,D,E will all respond well. To me, the non-bends version sounds better when played on a lower pitched harp, like an A, G, or low F.
Bends
The bending version of Timber is centered on the 2 draw. It emphasizes draw notes as start and finish points, and all the action takes place on the low end of the harp. This is typical for traditional, blues-style playing; it's a position known as 'cross harp' or '2nd position.' Here's the scale you'll need: -2 -3″ -3 4 -4 5 -5 6. If you can play this scale, follow the video instructions and you'll be able to play Timber.
If you can bend, go ahead and play the bend version. If you can't yet, then learn to bend! Or play the version without bends.
Non-Bends
For a non-bending version, you'll move all the notes up to the higher octave of the same position, running from holes 5 and 6 up to hole 8 and 9. The scale here runs like this: 6 -6 -7 7 -8 8 -9 9. Because we're in the higher end of the harp, I prefer to play this version on a lower-pitched instrument. Check out my demonstration of the non-bend version below:
Chromatic
For chromatic players, start the non-bend video at about 0:43, and you can match what I'm playing, as long as you have a C chromatic harmonica. I'm playing a diatonic harp, but the middle octave of a diatonic has the same note layout as a solo-tuned chromatic. For you, the riff will start with 6 7 7 7, all blow notes. I recommend playing the first few notes of the 2nd position major pentatonic scale to get comfortable here: 7 -7 -8 -9 -8 -7 7 6 7. Listen to my demo, starting at 0:43. Make sure you can accurately sing or whistle the riff to yourself, and then use notes from the scale above to pick out the riff by ear. This will take repetition, careful listening, and patience! But that's the road to better musicianship.
Articulation
Back to diatonic harmonica here – using a 'Too tah tah, tah' sound on the in and out breaths will make the opening notes more percussive, and help you hit the -3 bend more accurately. But you'll have to work on your 2 draw, because -2 frequently wants to bend when you hit it hard.
Who's That Guy on Timber?
I thought it was Lee Oskar, because the tune interpolates his song 'San Francisco Bay,' and because it's funky as all get-out, but it turns out the harmonica on Timber was played by a session musician from Dallas, TX named Paul Harrington. Here's a news article on the recording of Timber. They asked him to play like Lee Oskar, and he knocked it out of the park. Congrats on the song, Paul!
Thanks to all my readers who have written in to update me on the history of this tune!
This file is the author's own work and represents his interpretation of this song. It's intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.
*trigger warning for sexual assault*
So we've all heard about how gross the song ‘Blurred Lines' is by Robin Thicke (see here for a quick review), and we've heard some backlash against R Kelly for being a terrible human being in his new album Black Panties (see here). But I have yet to hear anything about how shockingly terrible ‘Timber' is. I think speaking up about the rampant misogyny in pop culture is important. Especially with ‘Blurred Lines', it has brought the feminist community together. I mean, take a look at some of the excellent feminist parodies that have come out of it! (my favorite is ‘Ask First') And ‘Timber' perpetuates some rape myths that really deserve national attention. The main issues are that Ke$ha might be a rapist, Pit Bull might be a rapist, and sex isn't about dominating someone else (well, there is a healthy consenting BDSM community, but more on that later).
Women can be–and some are–rapists. Statistics for this kind of crime are some of the most variable that I have encountered (a discussion on stats of men as victims here 1 or 2). I don't even have a guess to venture. I've heard numbers anywhere from 1 in 10 to 1 in 71. But it does happen, and the more we can talk about it and support survivors, the more we are going to learn about this problem. Ke$sha certainly isn't helping. She says over and over in ‘Timber' 'Let's make a night you won't remember', implying she's going to have sex with you when you're blackout drunk. That's rape! That's really not okay! Why aren't we mad about that? Ke$ha shouldn't threaten to rape people! And, she thinks you're going to love her for it chanting 'I'll be the one you can't forget'. It's haunting, especially considering men experience higher rates of PTSD after rape (Yea that's right, it emotionally affects men too.) So chances are, he might have trouble forgetting and moving on. We as a culture have a lot of trouble recognizing that men can be victims too. What was done to them doesn't make them any ‘less of a man', whatever that means. Malesurvivor.org is a good resource if you have questions about the healing process for men. The rape of men is a really tragic national problem that we should be approaching with respect and seriousness, not trivializing and glorifying to a catchy tune.
Ke$ha doesn't specify a gender, so I'm being heteronormative by assuming she's talking about a man. Ke$ha could definitely be taking about attacking another woman. She even came out as bi-sexual. Women do rape other women too (here is a discussion on prevalence). These statistics vary widely. We do know that lesbians, and bisexuals especially, are at greater risk for experiencing victimization by a man than straight girls (Balsam, et al., 2005). Some of them inexcusably act out this abuse by abusing other women (or other men). Again, this is a serious problem. Ke$ha singing about it charmingly is really disturbing.
Pit Bull's lyrics are also pretty disturbing. 'She say she won't, but I bet she will, Timber!' and this 'One more shot, another round, End of the night, it's going down' seem to directly threaten date rape. Let me be clear, if she says no, then later after you get her drunk says yes, that is rape. If sex doesn't come up sober, and then she gets drunk and says yes, that's rape too. Drunk people can't consent. Don't have sex with them. Seriously. Waiting until the next day will not be the end of the world, I promise. And if you're worried that tomorrow she won't want to have sex with you, then she never wanted to.
Some people will hear this song and say that women shouldn't drink so much if they don't want to be raped (gag!). A hangover, not rape, should be the punishment for drinking too much. No matter how much anyone drank, rape is always the fault of the rapist. Of course, binge drinking is not a healthy hobby for anyone. We've all heard advice on safe drinking, like alternating with nonalcoholic drinks, and eating well. Have you ever been told to limit your drinking to make sure you don't rape anyone? I'm guessing not, but maybe it should be our advice. Offenders are drunk in up to 75% of sexual assaults (Abbey, 2011), and drunk offenders are more likely to injure their victims than sober offenders (Brecklin & Ullman, 2010). If Pit Bull had held off on another round or two, maybe he would have listened to the woman who said she won't have sex with him.
Also, is shouting ‘Timber!' over and over really the best way to portray sex? Sex isn't a domination of someone. Women aren't trees to be sawed until they yield to sex. And I hope that finally collapsing into bed to have sex with a sober consenting partner is the beginning of a sensual experience, not the climax. BDSM is different; it's a consenting partnership where boundaries and limits are thoroughly discussed beforehand. What Pit Bull is talking about is the rape of a nonconsenting woman. Even if we give him a huge benefit of the doubt and decide that the woman in question soberly changed her mind under no coercion, this analogy of sex is really problematic. Sex shouldn't be this resource, this commodity that men take from women. Thinking of sex as a commodity has all sorts of negative consequences, like the objectification of women, and the minimizing of rape. An extreme example of that is when a judge actually decided that when a sex worker was raped at gun point, it was really just theft. Pit Bull and Ke$ha need to sit down and think about what sex means to them, and what it means to their partners, male or female. Until they do, however, I think we all can do that too. And we can talk about it. I know when this song comes on the radio, I speak up. I challenge all of you to as well!
Thanks for reading, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
Ke$ha doesn't specify a gender, so I'm being heteronormative by assuming she's talking about a man. Ke$ha could definitely be taking about attacking another woman. She even came out as bi-sexual. Women do rape other women too (here is a discussion on prevalence). These statistics vary widely. We do know that lesbians, and bisexuals especially, are at greater risk for experiencing victimization by a man than straight girls (Balsam, et al., 2005). Some of them inexcusably act out this abuse by abusing other women (or other men). Again, this is a serious problem. Ke$ha singing about it charmingly is really disturbing.
Pit Bull's lyrics are also pretty disturbing. 'She say she won't, but I bet she will, Timber!' and this 'One more shot, another round, End of the night, it's going down' seem to directly threaten date rape. Let me be clear, if she says no, then later after you get her drunk says yes, that is rape. If sex doesn't come up sober, and then she gets drunk and says yes, that's rape too. Drunk people can't consent. Don't have sex with them. Seriously. Waiting until the next day will not be the end of the world, I promise. And if you're worried that tomorrow she won't want to have sex with you, then she never wanted to.
Some people will hear this song and say that women shouldn't drink so much if they don't want to be raped (gag!). A hangover, not rape, should be the punishment for drinking too much. No matter how much anyone drank, rape is always the fault of the rapist. Of course, binge drinking is not a healthy hobby for anyone. We've all heard advice on safe drinking, like alternating with nonalcoholic drinks, and eating well. Have you ever been told to limit your drinking to make sure you don't rape anyone? I'm guessing not, but maybe it should be our advice. Offenders are drunk in up to 75% of sexual assaults (Abbey, 2011), and drunk offenders are more likely to injure their victims than sober offenders (Brecklin & Ullman, 2010). If Pit Bull had held off on another round or two, maybe he would have listened to the woman who said she won't have sex with him.
Also, is shouting ‘Timber!' over and over really the best way to portray sex? Sex isn't a domination of someone. Women aren't trees to be sawed until they yield to sex. And I hope that finally collapsing into bed to have sex with a sober consenting partner is the beginning of a sensual experience, not the climax. BDSM is different; it's a consenting partnership where boundaries and limits are thoroughly discussed beforehand. What Pit Bull is talking about is the rape of a nonconsenting woman. Even if we give him a huge benefit of the doubt and decide that the woman in question soberly changed her mind under no coercion, this analogy of sex is really problematic. Sex shouldn't be this resource, this commodity that men take from women. Thinking of sex as a commodity has all sorts of negative consequences, like the objectification of women, and the minimizing of rape. An extreme example of that is when a judge actually decided that when a sex worker was raped at gun point, it was really just theft. Pit Bull and Ke$ha need to sit down and think about what sex means to them, and what it means to their partners, male or female. Until they do, however, I think we all can do that too. And we can talk about it. I know when this song comes on the radio, I speak up. I challenge all of you to as well!
Thanks for reading, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
References
Balsam, K. F., Rothblum, E. D., & Beauchaine, T. P. (2005). Victimization over the life span: a comparison of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual siblings. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 73(3), 477.
Timber Kesha Meaning
