Composition related question

Hi, Although I use Reaper for my music, my question is more theory related around harmonic moves. I know chord progressions and how it works but when composing, I'm often being stuck in chords available in a given key (and they're not that much) and am unable to "move" to other chords (borrowed) from other scales without changing the scale of the tune. Can you suggest some sites/tutorials on composition with some analysis on well-known songs ? thanks

Furthermore, and this may well be the utter antithesis of a well-known song (since it's almost as obscure as my sister's quiz questions about local courier franchises in the early days of broadband internet), the details of your post reminded me of a short tune I wrote a while back. So here it is: The erhu melody remains entirely within one key area (C major/A minor) while the undulating piano accompaniment .. does not. ;) And here's a recording:

Don't forget that there are many more "legal" chords for a given scale than just the basic triads built on the scale notes; any chord made of notes from that scale is technically fair game if you feel like it. As a guitarist, sus9s (that is, Root-5th-9th) are a great one for me, as are sus4s, or seventh chords without the third, etc. You've also got inversions to play with, and open/closed voicings, all without even looking into other scales. I get a lot of use out of this site: , but even that doesn't include all of the chords you could make.

I know some people think they are uncool but I think The Beatles sill represent how far popular music can be "stretched" and this guy has done the analysis. It is particularly good on the technical aspects of composition and arrangement. A long read obviously but essential I would say.

Here's a demonstration for the people who think they've run out of notes :) My girlfriend does this thing sometimes when she plays the chords of a song on the piano and wants me to guess the song. It's surprisingly difficult with pop songs! This snippet is purely for educational purposes, please don't sue me because I have no money. These are the chords she played and the song I thought it was (she played the verse, but the chorus actually fits in an incredible way). I call it "Don't Worry, Be Yellow":

ijijn, do you have a recording of that piece you'd care to share? I'm curious to hear it but can't read music to save my life.

Thanks very much for all your rich contributions. If I take ijijn substitutions suggestions plus some well-known ones and try to write a chart, I'll have something similar to the file I posted (Subs.jpg, please see). My goal is to have every possible chords in every scale. In my example you only see the chart for C major key. I can easily complete the chart with the other major keys. How can I do the same for the minor keys ? Just give me an example for A minor key (which is the relative minor key of C major key) Of course I'm interested to the roman numerical formula. For example : use (bII7) instead of (V) which in my chart is: use Db7 instead of G Can you please give the formulas and an equivalent example for A minor key ? Please note that I understand that the chart doesn't give the progressions (e.g. ii-V-I). I'm just assembling the "right" chords in a key. I know it may sound meaningless in absolute terms without the actual progressions a given substitution is applied to but it gives me possible chords with which my imagination could build progressions.