Weeknote 15: Songwriting, Wedding Outfits, and Ledger Work

Table of contents

Song writing and singing

I started writing a song about one of my favorite tragedies, the Andes plane crash.

Here’s the workflow I used to write and record the song:

1. 🔎 Find the chords
   I used Hooktheory TheoryTab to find a chord progression from “Blue Jeans,” a song I wanted to use for inspiration.
2. 🎹 Write a melody
   I loaded the song into Hookpad and wrote a new melody over the chords.
   Screenshot of Hookpad showing the “Blue Jeans” chord progression with my new melody on top.
3. 📖 Find rhymes
   I used RhymeBrain. I used to use RhymeZone, but someone suggested RhymeBrain.
4. 🗣️ Record a voice note
   I sang over the Hookpad chords in Apple’s Voice Memos app.
5. 🤖 Make an AI backing track
   I uploaded the voice note to Suno and removed the AI vocals from the generated version.
6. 🎤 Record vocals
   I recorded over the AI backing track in Adobe Audition with a Scarlett Solo microphone.
7. 👩‍🏫 Practice belting
   I watched Instagram tips on how to belt certain vowel sounds.

Finalized my wedding outfit

I finalized my dance-optimized outfit. I returned the rest of my Amazon purchases. It was perhaps the largest Amazon return ever.

I’m excited that I have an outfit optimized for dancing. My skirt converts to a shorter skirt for dancing. My sleeves get shorter. The outfit is black, so dirt from dancing on the floor won’t show as much. I have a leotard with shorts underneath. I’m going to be wearing knee pads. Kneepads are freedom. I’m going hard on the dance floor!

At recent weddings, I hated feeling like I couldn’t dance because of my clothes. I saw my friends dancing and having fun. Meanwhile, my fitted skirt kept me from moving freely. I worried my underpants would show. I avoided getting my outfit dirty. Never again!

Wedding guest outfit anxiety

While putting my outfit together, I got comments that made me think weddings are fragile, and an outfit can break them. By contrast, when I got married 10 years ago, I never thought I needed to scrutinize my guests’ outfits. To me, it was just a party, and I expected people to have fun, feel good, and dress festively.

But now people were like, “Is there too much white in that?” “Are you sure you want that much leg showing?” “Is that too ostentatious?” “You can’t wear black.” “Cleavage, at a wedding?” People were nervous about their outfits. They were concerned about mine.

Despite those comments, the dress code was “Anything but a wedding dress.” I took that literally! So if I did something wrong, I’m going to blame the dress code. I don’t like silent dress code rules. A silent rule will be broken.

It’s crazy how much anxiety people have around wedding outfits.

“Don’t outshine the bride”

I kept hearing people say, “Don’t outshine the bride.” I’d never heard that phrase before.

1. The fear is overblown

   The bride probably spent thousands of dollars on her ball gown. If she dresses simply, she probably doesn’t want to outshine anyone. Also, no outfit can outshine the wedding itself.

2. The idea is superficial and sexist

   It implies that the bride is more important than the groom, that her looks are the most important part of her wedding day, and that she is insecure about them. I feel embarrassed thinking someone probably thought I was that insecure on my wedding day.

Social media has made wedding guest outfit anxiety worse. It’s usually not the bride who’s offended by guests’ outfits, but some insecure guest who spends way too much time on Reddit.

Back when I got married, photos of my guests’ outfits were less likely to go viral online. Even the expectation that guests wouldn’t wear white was looser then, and people paid less attention to it.

Worked on my ledger

I continued working on my ledger, but travel and family events interrupted my ledger work.