my biggest problem i have with courses like mark’s i have touched on before. he teaches the course a lot like a teacher would at a music college. and he has no idea what his student’s skill level, musical interests, goals, etc are. and so he does his best to cover the entirety of whatever subject he’s teaching fully, from soup to nuts. some people might love this. there is literally, as mark often states, a whole lifetime of study/subject material in one of his courses. but what i don’t think he does a great job of is trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. for example, he does mention in his most essential course (in both mine and his opinion) chord tones, which chord tones you will commonly see and which ones are more esoteric. this is helpful and what i’m talking about, but isn’t heavily emphasized in the course and you have to pay attention for it. often i’m in the middle of one of his lesson chapters, trying like hell to absorb it, and 3/4 of the way through it i realize, i will NEVER EVER actually use this. i would love to see him organize his courses in a format like “here is what you need to know and concentrate on and here is how you can take it to the next level if you want to”. i highly recommend going through his courses at least twice, once to get the lay of the land, and again to drill down on what you want to work on to start.
That is a valuable review. I am actually thinking about one of Mark’s technique builder courses as I currently want to focus on mechanics and technique. I am looking for a proper practice drill.
Interestingly, I see different courses depending on where I look on Mark’s page.
There is technique essentials:
And there is a technique builder:
I am not sure why they are not listed on the same page next to each other 
I am trying to say that sometimes navigating Mark’s page is a bit confusing.
if you have finished B2B and felt ok with it, i would highly recommend starting with his chord tones course. in many ways you could really just begin and end with it if you wish, it will give you (as i just mentioned) a whole lifetime of foundation to work with.
edit: sorry i overlooked the beginning of your post. if you just want to focus solely on technique, his etudes courses are really good and pretty reasonably priced. so yeah, the technique builder.
Just a heads up, @itsratso and @jacq : Mark is now on this forum (as of yesterday, I think). His handle is: @markjsmith 
Chord Tones Essentials is a great course, with an emphasis on arpeggio construction and usage. It contains a ton of material, but I’ve found Mark’s Scales Essentials course very complementary to it, as it dives into the whys and hows of scales and modes construction and usage.
Together, these courses offer a comprehensive foundation for understanding and building bass lines.
These courses do require commitment and work to get the most out of them, but their benefits are invaluable.
This is a great insight and good feedback for @markjsmith and I would say the same for Ari’s books. Tell us everything but then tell us what we need to know fundementals. For the vast amount of hobbyists, esp the ones starting later in life, there is no time to know it all, so what things should we focus on to be most successful.
Maybe a summary in the docs that come with the course highlighing the ‘here’s the x # of things you should know’.
It’s fantastic to present everything, don’t get me wrong, but I think a lot of self-studiers get lost in these weeds and just ignore a lot as a restult to get out of them.
right, and i get that someone that is say, super hardcore into jazz is going to have a different level of need to know than i will.
It’s got to be hard for online teachers to create content that will appeal to all levels of players. Aiming a course at beginners tends to be a much more straightforward task because a course can deal with the fundamentals all early-stage students need.
But once those fundamentals are presented and absorbed, each player is a moving target with individual playing abilities, interests and goals. Offering follow-on course(s) that will be most appealing and effective to most players then becomes a lot harder to predict.
For players who may not have either the time or desire to dive into a college-level course, Mark offers 500+ free tutorials on YouTube that deal with a crazy amount of topics and offer a ton of info. And all for free.
Hiya. Technique Essentials is an old course (basically the 2nd module of Bassic Fundamentals) I’m surprised you found that page to be honest. It shouldn’t be on the site.
The All Access Pass was something I ran for a few years but it became way too complicated a task to run it alongside the individual course purchases. It also didn’t work with the new website infrastructure I created last year (the social network/free membership stuff). More for technical reasons than anything else.
I also want to steer clear of the SBL subscription model. Scott does that incredibly well and I prefer TalkingBass to occupy a different lane altogether.
I’m a total newbie and have only completed six lessons of B2B so my opinion probably doesn’t count for a great deal.
I watched a few of Josh’s videos on YT and same with SBL. B2B seemed more appropriate for a complete beginner and I love Josh’s teaching style. I think I could get along with Scott’s style once I’ve progressed. Couple of things that annoy me though is that SBL is very much geared towards the American market, yet he’s English. Also, since signing up to his site I’ve been carpet-bombed with emails encouraging to take advantage of once in a lifetime offers and stuff. Speaking only for myself here but I don’t respond well to the hard sell approach.
If you don’t respond well to hard-sell marketing, unsubscribe from SBL yesterday. His emails come in droves, otherwise.
Just done it.
I noticed his account preferences page states he’s based in the north of England, so I’m even more surprised that his subscription fees are in US dollars. What the heck is that all about?
Or @pauldavidson335d depending how tech savvy you are you could create a rule in your email to send certain emails to a folder you created.
If you use Outlook, here’s how to do it. Then you can review the folder periodically to see if there’s anything relevant to you. No need to use the sledgehammer Luddite approach and unsubscribe.
Also hello to a fellow Welshman.
Croeso
I personally love Scott and the way he teaches. I love the songs he uses on Players Path. Very similar to B2B in that each level builds on the one before it. I can even get through a Phil Mann class without falling asleep.
I’m sorry to break it to my fellow Brits but you’re not the Empire anymore. The US market is bigger so in the digital world why not go after the biggest market for your product.
The days of the Raj have long since gone.
Unsubscribing depends on whether anyone cares about the sender’s email content. I have lots of smart mailboxes for aggregating emails of interest. The rest, like SBL spam, get the sledgehammer post haste. Mileage invariably varies.
This is important to me. I’m not 8. I’m almost 58! Time is of the essence lol.
Best Internet Comment Prize for today
@markjsmith It is on the main page 
When I scroll to the bottom there is a list of courses:
Improve your technique links to Technique Essentials.
Thanks for the advice. I will most likely go for Technique Builder as my next thing.