Appendix - Designing Your Own Superimpositions

The book should leave you able to discover relationships rather than depend on its examples.

Start from a desired color

Suppose you want b9 and 13 over G7. The desired notes include Ab and E. Ask whether a familiar small object contains both. Perhaps the best answer is not a major triad; perhaps it is a dyad, minor structure, or fragment. Superimposition does not require every object to be a complete triad.

Start from a familiar object

Take B minor: B-D-F#. Place it over G and analyze:

B = 3
D = 5
F# = major 7

The major seventh clashes with the conventional G7 b7. Is the object therefore forbidden? No. Ask what context would make F# meaningful. Perhaps G is no longer a conventional dominant; perhaps F# is a chromatic upper neighbor to F; perhaps the object is part of a side-slip. Analysis should produce questions, not police permission.

B minor over G7: 3, 5, and a major 7 that clashes with G7's own b7, within the full ii-V-I -- a deliberately unresolved question, not a forbidden object.

X:1
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:C
V:RH clef=treble
[FAc]8 | [Bd^f]8 | [EGB]8 |]
V:LH clef=bass
D,,8 | G,,8 | C,,8 |]

B minor over G7: 3, 5, and a major 7 that clashes with G7's own b7, within the full ii-V-I -- a deliberately unresolved question, not a forbidden object. Same voicing, arpeggiated instead of stacked.

X:1
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:C
V:RH clef=treble
F2 A2 c2 z2 | B2 d2 ^f2 z2 | E2 G2 B2 z2 |]
V:LH clef=bass
D,,8 | G,,8 | C,,8 |]

Start from voice leading

Choose the tonic destination first. Suppose your Cmaj7 voicing contains E-G-B-D. Approach each note by semitone from the dominant:

Eb -> E
Gb/F# -> G
Bb -> B
Db -> D

Now ask which upper structures contain useful subsets of those approach notes. You have generated dominant color from destination-driven voice leading rather than from a scale.

Dominant color generated from the destination: within the full ii-V-I, each voice of Cmaj7's E-G-B-D approached by semitone.

X:1
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:C
V:RH clef=treble
[FAc]8 | [_E_G_B_d]8 | [EGBd]8 |]
V:LH clef=bass
D,,8 | G,,8 | C,,8 |]

Dominant color generated from the destination: within the full ii-V-I, each voice of Cmaj7's E-G-B-D approached by semitone. Same voicing, arpeggiated instead of stacked.

X:1
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:C
V:RH clef=treble
F2 A2 c2 z2 | _E2 _G2 _B2 _d2 | E2 G2 B2 d2 |]
V:LH clef=bass
D,,8 | G,,8 | C,,8 |]

Start from geometry

Choose a shape that feels natural: a fourth, a triad inversion, a two-note cluster, or a pentatonic cell. Move it over a fixed bass and document the resulting degrees. Some positions will be ordinary, some surprising, and some unusable in the current register. The experiment itself develops harmonic intuition.

The final rule

There is no obligation to use a theoretically interesting structure. A superimposition earns its place when you can hear why you chose it, control how it behaves, and place it in a musical phrase.

The method is not a permission system.

It is a way to make intention precise.