How high is your bass?

[Richard Prowse]

When I was (slightly ) younger (about 38 years ago) I studied the violin at university; not with Gary Karr because:
1) he plays the bass and
2) he's never taught at Victoria University, Down here (NZ).
Teachers always made me do things that made my left arm hurt, along with other bits of my body. My teacher at university also seemed to instill in me that serious looking old people were very good and that I sucked. A few years later I realised that pain was not good and, when I started playing bass, I resolved that I would always strive to keep my whole body relaxed. If your body's relaxed, you can reach all the notes and the bass is balanced - you've probably just about got it right. Oh, and I also later learned that music is about intuition and not necessarily about serious looking old people who always play the right notes but who have no soul.