Thinking in Layers

Superimposition as a Mental Model for Modern Jazz Piano Harmony

Welcome

Superimposition as a Mental Model for Modern Jazz Piano Harmony.

The underlying chord tells you where you are. The superimposed structure tells you what you want that harmony to sound like.

A mental model for hearing, seeing, and playing modern jazz piano harmony as layers — an underlying function, a superimposed object placed above it, and the resulting color — built through one fixed laboratory progression, Dm7 – G7 – Cmaj7, so the ear can attribute each new sound to the layer that produced it.

In this web edition, worked examples are notated as you read them: click Play under any example to hear it, not just see it.

This is a first complete draft, not a finished, professionally edited book.