Hi All,
I still have about half of B2B to go, but I want to keep taking lessons when I am done. I have seen a few people mention the Talking Bass site. What courses do people recommend after finishing B2B?
Thank you!
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I would recommend focusing on finishing B2B for now. TalkingBass is definitely your best bet for courses after B2B, but you will know better what you want to continue working on once you finish B2B.
All of Mark’s courses come highly recommended, with most recommendations for a first one being Chord Tones or Simple Steps to Sight Reading. However there are other more focused courses that will make more sense to you as choices once you finish B2B.
I can verify Chord Tones is a great course and is balanced well between theory and utility.
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Chord Tones can open many music horizons for you.
Simple Steps to sight Reading is also excellent in that it teaches how to systematically memorize the fretboard, how to read music notation for bass, and how to play without staring at your fretting hand.
There are many other Talking Bass full courses and mini-course/workbooks available to take you where you want to go. But foundational courses are a great place to start.
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Hi everyone,
I recently completed the B2B course – which gave me a solid foundation and a lot of motivation. I’m now looking at what’s next, and I’ve purchased a few courses on TalkingBass.
The structure seems a bit different from what we’re used to here, and since English isn’t my first language, I sometimes get a bit lost figuring out the best way to work through the material.
Has anyone here followed TalkingBass courses after B2B?
How did you organize your learning? Did you follow one course at a time or mix them?
Any tips or feedback would be super appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
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Several Buzzers have either taken or are now taking Talking Bass courses, including me. I find them outstanding resources for learning bass.
How you should plan your approach to studying Mark’s courses is really up to you. Ask yourself: What are your goals? The answer to that question will guide you to the course(s) for you.
I own many TB courses and I have tried doing just one at a time and also doing several at a time. Again, depending on my personal goals, I found either approach worked well.
For example, after finishing B2B, I asked Mark Smith which course to start with. Given my previous musical studies and background, he suggested that I start with Chord Tones Essentials. It is a truly comprehensive bass course that goes into deep detail about harmony and what comprises bass line structure and creation. But be aware that it is also a less fun course than B2B. Fun is not its purpose. That said, I really liked it and got much from it.
You can check out the TB website for descriptions of Mark’s many courses. See what appeals to you. There are courses for improving technique, music theory for bass, jamming and soloing, walking bass, and a whole lot more. Good luck and let us know what you think.
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I agree, wait til you complete B2B before making any decisions on talkingbass. I am also taking numerous Talkingbass courses. Sight Reading is a mammoth course that’ll end up taking me a good 18 months to complete (currently 1 year in and just finishing Vol 2, and I practice a lot). Chord tones was not as big, but I didn’t have any music theory background prior so I took Vol 1 of Music Theory in parallel with Chord tones, and completed both in about 9 months (although I frequently go back to both for practice and refreshers). Chord Tones is by far the most applicable to playing bass in most settings (many have argued you’ll never need to read music, it was just on my bucket list) and it’s something you’ll constantly need to work on and practice. I have found the Sight Reading course to be incredibly useful to me personally. Courses like technique builder, groove trainer, or the Cyborg books you can easily do along with other courses.
My current “curriculum”:
- Sight Reading + Chord Tones + Theory (all concurrently)
- Scales
- Walking Bass
- Creative Bassist
I’m doing Technique Builder and Groove Trainer as well.
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mark himself recommends chord tones first and scales second. the idea to also throw sight reading in there can be a very good one if that interests you, but be warned that as jeff says the full course is gigantic (mark designed it basing it on, and somewhat hoping it might someday be) a music college level course.
Probably worth mentioning that The Creative Bassist is probably now the course I would recommend before Chord Tone Essentials because it gives a REASON for learning everything else. You get to experience chord tone, scale, chromatic use as well as reading elements that will encourage the bigger deep dives in the other courses.
My go to recommendations for Bassbuzz users would now be:
- Groove Trainer
- The Creative Bassist
- Chord Tone Essentials
Simple Steps To Sight Reading would also be a supplementary course to do at the same time as all the others. That’s simply because it is such a big course. I suspect most people won’t realise how big a course it is before embarking on it.
I would say most people won’t reach the standards of Level 9 until at least 5 years into practicing it and even then, it was probably more like 10 years before I was at that standard myself. I can imagine some people seeing that as too large a commitment to something but I just see it as good value for money lol.
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Outstanding. Thanks, Mark.
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Looks like I need to switch up my course order 
Ultimate Music Theory Volume 2 looks very interesting.
Thanks Mark
I need to get Vol3 Simple Sight Reading.
new insight, nice. so good that mark doesn’t mind stopping by.
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Thanks for this Mark. Getting into some of your courses has been on to-do list for a couple months now, but I have been a little overwhelmed in where to start. And now here you are with your recommendations.
Great. I always like checking in every so often because there are a lot of Beginner To Badassers that look to TalkingBass for further study. It makes sense that I give some advice here at the source. Plus, Josh and I are buddies.
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Much appreciated, Mark. 
Hi Mark.
So, I’ve completed original B2B, but I have not yet completed all the additional lessons Josh added, what, a couple of months back? I’m also a member over at SBL, and have taken a few courses there (mostly beginner level stuff, really just supporting what I learned here at B2B). I’m looking for something a little different.
The recommendations above… would you consider those accurate for someone who has completed original B2B and some basic SBL stuff? Or were they for the OP, who said he’s about half-way through B2B? I’m looking to avoid repetition with the courses I’ve already taken.
Thanks!
(And others familiar with Mark’s courses - @MikeC, I’m looking at you, please feel free to chime in.)
Mark Smith has a great collection of original courses. If you have a particular bass interest to make better or to learn from the get-go, Talking Bass will likely have it.
As mentioned in other threads, Mark recommends the Creative Bassist for Beginner to Badass grads. That said, the course is not only for Buzzers; it is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to jam and solo, which encompasses knowing many aspects of bass playing — from rhythm to chord tones to voicing, and more.
Prior to Creative Bassist, many Talking Bass core courses were created as deep dives into a single topic: Chord Tones Essentials, Scales, etc. They are great studies that provide literally years worth of content.
But Mark responded to a TB survey which he sent to his students, asking what they wanted to learn next/most. The overwhelming consensus replied that it was to learn how to jam and solo. Hence, he spent a great deal of time to create Creative Bassist.
Now, as I always do, I gotta stress that TB courses are not like B2B. They are different in style and presentation of material. In fact, they are more like studying music at a college level, which some love and others do not.
If you want to learn grooves or technique, TB has courses for that. Same with theory, ear training, scales, walking bass, and more.
Lastly, take it for what it’s worth, but I would finish every lesson and exercise associated with B2B. Learn a few more songs from the 100 Songs list. Use those experiences to figure out what you want to concentrate on. Whatever you decide is next, Talking Bass will be waiting with the roadmap to get you where you want to go.
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Thanks for the detailed reply.
That’s kind of where I’m stuck, and why I’ve been floundering with SBL for the last… however long it’s been since I finished “classic” B2B. I kind of feel like I don’t know what I don’t know.
My bass goals have never changed: I want to play bass with people, for people: I want to understand - and have the skills to play - my bass well enough to be in a weekend dive-bar cover band, without being tied to tablature. But I don’t know how to get there from here.
That’s fair. I already paid for them, after all. 
This is an end goal, and knowing it is a critically important first step to progress.
There are many ways to achieve that goal. Some require just learning more and more songs from tabs. Another requires you to pinpoint what you don’t know, but need to know, and working on those specific skills and music knowledge to achieve the results you want.
If you want to play in a cover band eventually, then learn as many songs as you can, however you can. Then find like-minded musicians to play with. This is a tried and true recipe for playing.
But if you want to be able to play more than covers, to jam on any tune, to eventually converse musically with others, studying how and why music is composed is the path. Which way to go is strictly up to each individual player.
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