I know there is already a lot of material here with the course itself/ extras/ forums, but after going through the course 2x, what is the next step for me? I can’t yet read sheet music (can read some tabs), but like Josh says, a lot of them are incorrect or don’t give us info about rests/ timing and pace of song structure. I want to learn more jazz, Motown, blues, etc. Is there another course like this I can check out or another digital resource that can keep me on the bass? I have a really hard time finding a practice routine other than playing the same song/ scale over and over and over. Thanks!
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There are several threads on the forum already about what to study/do after B2B, but many of us, including me, have chosen to study Talking Bass courses. I have bought and studied almost all of them.
Mark Smith is an excellent teacher. He started playing bass on his own, then gigged, then attended music college, where he quickly found out he hadn’t learned nearly as much as he had thought he had by self-learning. He remedied that situation by knuckling down and studying theory and techniques for playing jazz and classical music.
Anyway, Mark and Talking Bass are the real deals for further bass learning resources.
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Use the search function at the top right of the page and that might be of assistance.
My take is learn songs. Learning songs so that you can play them from memory without reading tab will make a huge difference to your playing. It’s also fun.
Find easy tunes, so you don’t become discouraged.
Also check out the 50 first songs and post your covers threads for inspiration.
Also it looks like you’ve started two similar threads on this subject. Maybe delete one to keep things tidy. Cheers
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@michaelmorris, I agree with @Barney that learning songs, especially easier ones, is a good step after B2B.
But since you specifically mentioned that you want to learn jazz, that will require learning theory and technique, which is absolutely necessary to finally be able to improvise. That’s why I recommend Talking Bass courses.
Just be aware that Mark Smith’s approach and teaching style are not at all like Josh’s. The intent is to convey a great deal of knowledge and technique as quickly as possible, but leaving the practicing application strictly to the student to perform. There are no slow/medium/fast play-along workouts, like in B2B. TB courses are much more like music college-level courses.
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Another option… while staying on the ‘learning songs’ thing… would be to get into the 50 song challenge. There is a list of 50 songs to take a stab at 
All of various genres… so not all rock… not all blues etc… a good mix
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Play more songs. Pick one or both sheets or tabs and get started. Like many suggested start with the 50 song challenge. You don’t need more lessons right now. You just did B2B twice. It’s time for some real world experience.
Pick your favorite songs and start playing, if you can’t find tabs just start figuring out the song yourself. It will be very rewarding. Do this for a few months before you look for more lessons it would help just to refresh the B2B once more. This time it should feel different.
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If you want to learn something new, anything, look at:
- what it is that you want to do?
- what skills/knowledge are you lacking to do that thing
- identify how you can find/obtain those skills
- do those things until you can do the thing in step 1
- repeat
I love playing songs (as I did when i was young) so i focus on that, mostly playing on yousician because it’s enjoyable and results in the least wasted time faffing around Sometimes i feel like I’m in a rut not learning a lot but when i look at things over time I can always see an improvement and it’s not always linear. I played 152 days on Yousician last year and while I might have done other things to improve more/faster, I enjoyed all that time and it was more productive than a lot of other things i could have been doing.
One of the things that has been very productive over the years has been posting to here and other forums to help answer questions. Sometimes, i don’t know the answer so it’s something i have to learn for myself and it fits well into my learning paradigm of “start with a problem if you want to learn something”. I used to HATE theory, i’m still not fond of it but answering questions for people has given me a good reason to learn more
I always have some songs that are too difficult that i can’t play all the parts perfectly. Sometimes i spend time working on the parts i can’t play in order to get “better” sometimes i just suck my way through those part until i decide that i should work on them 
My biggest impediment is that I “can’t” memorize music, i’ve always played from sheet music or tab and memorizing music has always been a struggle so i’ve never worked very hard at it… I am “bad” at 100% of the things i don’t like doing 
It’s funny because i can memorize technical stuff easily. I need to trick my brain into thinking that names and music are technical 
I need to work more on ear training and transcribing but i just don’t need to do that so much as i need to finish the 43 other projects I’m in the middle of
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Right now I’m doing a 3 part routine. (1) Chord Tone Essentials over at Talking Bass. (2) 50 songs challenge. (3) Learning songs that we play live in our little expat band(s).
Talking Bass is definitely a different style than B2B. For that course I have to take notes/do home work haha. For example, Mark will do everything on the lesson videos in the key of C, with the expectation that you’ll work through the other keys off-line.
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Amen^^^
If jazz is a desired genre, learning the fundamentals of song construction and improv composition, chord tones and further theory study is where it’s at.
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I’m also enrolled in a number of Mark’s courses. Currently finishing off Level 4 of Sight Reading (out of 9 levels), about 75% complete with Chord Tones, 30% done with Theory level 2 and 50% done with Groove Trainer level 1. To be honest, the combination of the Theory course, Sight Reading and Chord Tones seems like a great combination. I had zero music theory knowledge and started bass about 7 months ago. I feel like these courses were exactly what I needed after B2B, as I was wanting to really understand music at a deeper level. There is sooooo much material that requires soooo much practice that the additional benefit is my playing has gotten light years better as well. But…it’s definitely a more college type course with homework as stated above. That type of learning is right up my alley so it works. YMMV.
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Set an achievable goal. Identify the major steps you need to take to reach that. Start working on those.
If you want to get good in certain styles - pick target songs that are well beyond your capability now. Identify what skills you need to acquire to be able to play them. Find easier songs that work on those skills.
Play more songs.
If you like jazz and blues, you need to practice your improv skills. Start playing along to blues backing tracks and improvise parts to go along with them.
Join a band or form a band. Shouldn’t be too tough to pull together a drummer and a guitarist who want to play blues and soul (jazz is harder). Jam with other people.
That will give you more songs to practice.
Listen to music. Grab your bass and start plinking away in real time. See what you can keep up with. When you find a song that you really like, add it to your repertoire and dig down and practice it to really dial it in.
To come up with a list of songs to learn, find a local gigging band doing the types of music that interests you. Find out what their setlist is. Learn those songs.
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Might be worth mentioning … Keep your bass in the STAND… not in the case…
Have it out… in view … so you WANT to play it … In the case… its an afterthought … Don’t hide it
Just saying
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Hanging on the wall, 3 seconds to start playing 
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This is my life, everything i want to do requires me to learn some other things and i just never get anything finished
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Play more bass…
Have you hit the 500 hour milestone yet.?
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I just joined the band after finishing bass buzz in 2 weeks. Then buy 4 books bass lesson. Pentatonic scales, creative exercise, progressive bass lesson and forgot the other. Its harder on books but you pick up some styles. Its more fun on you tube too many…