Playing seventh chords question

Hi,

I'm a newcomer to piano playing , and I'd like to ask your advice about playing seventh chords. I'll try to explain this as best as I possibly can.

At this point I've learned how to play the major triads and the minor chords. To facilitate less hand movement, I've inverted a few of these chords, and I sort of now have a 'system' or routine in place where I easily play some of the major & minor chords by simply moving a finger or two either left or right......without having to move my hand all over the place to play everything in root position. I do know how to play these chords in their root positions, but for the sake of expediency when I play some simple pieces of music, I'll invert a few.

So now that seventh chords have been introduced into my lessons , this kind of throws off the balance of what I'm doing...in a way. I think.

So how should I go about learning to play seventh chords as a beginner? Should I begin by playing all these seventh chords in root position when I'm playing a simple piece of music for novices, or should I try inverting them right from the start since I'm already doing it with the other chords? So from your own experience, what route should I take as a beginner?

What I mean is, like for example I'm playing a C chord with my left hand in root position, and to play an F major chord, I'll usually shift two of my fingers over to the notes F & A, while keeping the thumb on C. Now that I'm learning to play F7 chord, should I just make a play on this inversion right away for the sake of expediency and play the F chord in this manner, and then add the sharp note that I need to make that inverted F chord a seventh chord,....... or should I forget that 7th inversion for right now and just move my hand over and play the F7 chord in root position.. I'm just using F7 as an example because my question relates to all 7th chords.

You sound like a jazz enthusiast..

Learn your minor 7th's as well as normal 7th's, then learn to play them in first and third inversions, 3rd at the bottom and 7th at the bottom. This teaches you the right voicing for common II, V, 1 progressions ie Dm7, G7, C.

You should look at some of the jazz piano books, 'Jazz Piano' my Mark Levine for example.

Learn to play major chords as 6th's or Major 7th's.

This should spark off some more comment!

Best of luck

There are reasons to use chords in root position, and reasons to use them in inversion. In classical harmony, to oversimplify greatly, what sounds as the bass note is often related to what sounds in the highest voice. But what you have discovered on your own is the basic principle of voice leading - that is, do not force voices in a texture to skip unnecessarily. It doesn't sound as if you're playing fully notated classical music, but getting familiar with classical harmonic theory might answer most of your questions.

Ty

I'm playing a simple piece of music for novices, or should I try inverting them right from the start since I'm already doing it with the other chords?

I'd suggest learning the root positions first, then the inversions. You want to be able to shift back & forth, with little effort. If you only memorize one particular inversion, you'll be stuck with that position.

Ty, that is a good start to efficient fingering and harmony. I would say you should probably study beginning theory in addition to the inversions. this will help you understand how chords resolve thru a progression. That is good that you see how to go between chords without jumping around too much.