The Tempting Seamstress

This tune was written back in 1996 when I had nimble fingers due to all the busking.

Joseph Rodefer DeCamp, The Seamstress, 1916

Playing for hours a day, most days, does wonders for your dexterity and I can’t play it now with the same fluidity. The pipes I play here were made by Jon Swayne and have a right hand thumb hole, allowing you to play the minor third without cross fingering.

The title is self explanatory and the tune was written for a friend.




I use the excellent, open-source software MuseScore for final score engraving. You can upload your tunes to musescore.com and then embed the score in your own site.

The Tempting Seamstress by S P McNally by bagpie


Below is the tune in ABC Notation. ABC is a great way to share simple, single staff notation and is popular amongst traditional musicians. You can learn about ABC notation here and I recommend EasyABC to convert the tunes into standard notation, for editing and playback (although a fully working version isn’t yet available for macOS Catalina or later).

X:7
T:The Tempting Seamstress
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:2/4=80
C:© 1996 S P McNally
K:Amix
A>ee>=c ^c>df>g | a>ee>=c ^c>dB>c | A>ee>=c ^c>df>g | a>ee>a d>da>=c |
c>ee>=c ^c>df>g | a>ee>=c ^c>dB>c | A>ee>=c ^c>df>g | a>ee>a c>=cB>A ||
a>=c^c>a =c>^ca>=c | c>ae>a f>ae>a- |a>=c^c>a =c>^ca>e | f>ae>a c>=cB>A |
a>=c^c>a =c>^ca>=c | c>ae>a f>ae>a- | a>ee>a d>da>c | c>=c^c>=c ^c>=cB>A ||

2 responses to “The Tempting Seamstress”

  1. Colin Avatar
    Colin

    Great informative posts Stephen – really digging the whole site – well done!

    1. Stephen McNally Avatar
      Stephen McNally

      Thanks very much Colin. A lot more tunes to come.

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