An exercise to kill a weekend

[JimmyM]

I wanted to see if anyone has done this...

Write out an 8-bar phrase using your best musicianship and make it sound as musical as possible, but make it impossible to play, then teach yourself how to play it. I'm thinking of doing that this weekend if I get bored.

Anyone else ever do it?

[Sean S]

you mean like make an entire composition with multiple parts and learn it on one bass?

[JimmyM]

No, just a regular bassline. I suppose you could try orchestrating something elaborate with multiple parts if you wanted, but I'm not that ambitious

[kesslari]

Ouch. That could be interesting...

Here's another (learned this years ago from Glenn Velez).
Stack 3 layers of sevens, each doubling the other.

For example:
Put 7/4 in your feet (tap 7/4 - might want to use both feet, just to make it easier to keep track).
Sing 7/8 - a pattern or melody.
Play 7/16 on bass - pattern or melody. Or if you're less adventurous, drum it using your hands.

It'll definitely kill some time, and fire up some new synapses.