Hi Billy,

As other have said, what you are talking about is called dominant motion. It's summarised in a diagram usually called the "Cycle of Fifths" or the "Cycle of Fourths." It's exactly the same diagram and just depends on if you go anti-clockwise or clockwise around it.

I prefer to think in clockwise motion, so for me it's a Cycle of Fourths (see the image below).

The dominant of any chord is the one immediately before it on the diagram.

For example...

The dominant of an A or Am chord is E (or E7)
The dominant of an C of Cm chord is G (or G7)

Some writers use this motion to create songs. For example, in "Fly Me To The Moon" in the key of A minor, the chord progression for the first part is...

Am | Dm | G7 | C | F | Bm7b5 | E7 | Am |

When you look at the chord letters only in relation to the the diagram below, you'll see what I mean by "thinking in clockwise motion".

Regards,
Noel

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