How do find a dominant seventh chord?

Question

For example, how do you find the dominant seventh chord of C major?

Answer 1

basically, its all about understanding the major scale, all the other scales, and every chord is based off the relationship of the notes in the major scale.

theres 12 notes all together, and in the major scale, we'd play 7 of the 12. think of it as a ruler. all 12 inches are there, but we're only going to play attn to the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th. now, rather than calling them by those numbers, we just rename them: one through seven. those are the notes in the major scale. (do re mi fa so la ti do). keep in mind, when you're playing these notes, even though you're not using all 12, all 12 spaces are still there. so, the inches on the ruler that arent used are still there, they still count as distance between notes. when you play a major chord, you're playing the root note (note #1), the third, and the fifth - out of the 7 in the scale. to play a dominant seventh you'd need to add in the 7th, but theres a certain dissonance to that note, so we'd take that note and make it flat (one fret lower, or one piano key lower). so, now you've got 1-3-5-b7

or :: c-e-g-Bb

Answer 2

Right after the sixth and before the eight chord.

Answer 3

you look at the three notes after it