The 5-Week Jazz Language Immersion and the 5-Week Play What You Hear ear-training cohort. Both live with me. Both start Wednesday, August 19th.
Even if you've been stuck for years, even if you only have 30 minutes a day, even if YouTube has failed you a dozen times. Take either cohort for $497 — the founding price for this first run, normally $697 — or take both for $767 and build the language and the ear at the same time.
Rotem Sivan is an internationally touring jazz guitarist based in New York City. Five albums on international jazz labels, stages from the Blue Note to the North Sea Jazz Festival, and playing praised by The New York Times and DownBeat. For the last few years he's poured all of it into one thing: helping the adult player who's been at it for years finally get unstuck — live, in small rooms, with real feedback on real playing.
I've played sold-out venues on three continents and released five albums praised by The New York Times and DownBeat. And I still remember sitting in with better players and hearing my own solos come out generic. Lifeless. Like I was playing at the music instead of with it.
What took me years longer than it should have to figure out: the problem was never that I needed more scales, or more licks, or more theory. It was that I was practicing the wrong things, in the wrong order, and nobody was actually listening to what I played.
After twenty years teaching adult guitarists, I see the same two walls over and over. Almost everyone who writes to me is stuck at one of them.
You've got scales, arpeggios, and ii-V-I's under your fingers. But when the tune starts moving, your lines come out like exercises instead of music. You learned the ingredients. Nobody ever taught you the recipes.
You can hum the solo. You know how it should go. But you're hunting for every note, looking up every chord, faking your way through the jam. The bridge between your ear and your hands was never built.
Six weeks of progress, then life gets busy, then you drift, then you restart from the basics. No one watching you play. No one telling you the one thing to fix. That's the real reason the plateau never moves — not talent, not time.
These two cohorts are those two walls, taken down on purpose — live, in a small room, with my ears on your actual playing. One fixes the language. One fixes the ear. Most players start with the one that's costing them the most. Some take both at once.
— Rotem Sivan
These cohorts fix two different problems. One of them is almost certainly the thing that's had you stuck. A few players have both. Read the two cards and you'll know which room is yours.
You've got scales, licks, and ii-V-I's under your fingers. But when the tune starts moving, your solos come out sounding like exercises instead of music.
Pick this if your problem is language — turning what you know into lines that actually swing.
You can hum the melody, you know how it should go — but you have to hunt for every note, look up the chords, or fake your way through the jam.
Pick this if your problem is the gap between your ear and your hands — hearing a song and just playing it.
No endless video library to get lost in. One move a week, and someone on the other end making sure it lands.
Each week is one focused idea, taught live and recorded — one jazz-language system, or one ear skill built on top of the last. No overwhelm, no 200-video backlog.
You record a short video on your phone and send it in. This is the part that actually moves you — I watch your real playing, not a quiz score or a checkbox.
I tell you the one thing to fix next, and we meet live as a small group every week. Can't make it? Every call is recorded and posted in the community.
Turn the scales, licks, and arpeggios you already know into real jazz lines — the five systems that move you from playing the changes to actually speaking the language. Stop learning ingredients and start learning the recipes.
Connect your ear to your hands so you can hear a song and just play it — no hunting, no charts, no faking it. Built from the same Exercise of Life method I've used to train the ear for twenty years. Any instrument. Any level.
Here's why most players stay stuck: they build one half and not the other. You can memorize every recipe and still freeze when it's your turn, because your ear can't hand the line to your fingers fast enough. Or you can hear everything and have nothing to say, because you never learned the vocabulary. Run both cohorts together and each one feeds the other — the language gives your ear something worth reaching for, and the ear lets you actually use the language in real time.
The jazz cohort builds what to say. The ear cohort builds the reflex to say it the instant you hear it — the two halves of sounding like a real player.
Both start August 19th and meet weekly, so the new language and the new ear skill are landing in the same songs in the same weeks — not months apart.
Same method, same feedback loop, same community. Nothing to reconcile between two approaches — it's one path taught by one person.
The reason this works when the playlists and apps didn't isn't more information. It's a path, a room, and a pair of ears on your playing.
Different ages, different starting points, one thing in common — they stopped spinning their wheels and started sounding like players. A few of them, in their own words.
“Now I'm no longer stuck in the pentatonic box — I can play around the fretboard. I tried YouTube, books, other courses. This one was more extensive. A world-class player, a very good teacher, and very patient. Definitely worth the money.”
“Within three months I got really deep into improvisation and jazz. I never thought I'd love it so much, but I fell in love with it. Later I went to study jazz at music school. Studying with Rotem changed my life.”
“I've been playing for some decades but my ability to improvise wasn't really good. Now I've got a much better understanding of the harmonic structure — and the importance of listening has become clear to me again.”
“Every time we met, he had thought about how to help me become a better player. He helped with timing, harmony, understanding the fretboard, and how to think creatively within changes. He enhanced my musicianship quite a bit.”
Three things most players try. One of them is honest about what it gives you.
$497 over five weeks = under $100 a week — less than a single private lesson.
At Rotem's NYC rate, $497 is roughly four one-hour lessons. Four hours total. Then he goes home.
Same dollars. Five weeks of live coaching, weekly feedback on your actual playing, and a small room of players on the same path.
Saying it out loud so neither of us wastes the other's time.
This isn't a first-guitar program. Get a song or two under your fingers first, then this will land.
It's five weeks of real work. The shortcut is the structure and the feedback — not skipping the practice.
Half the value is me watching your actual playing and telling you what to fix. If that's uncomfortable, good — it's the part that works.
You'll be a noticeably different player. Not the finished article. Anyone promising that on this timeline is selling you something.
That's it. The plateau isn't because you're not good enough. It's because no one has shown you the path — or listened while you walked it.
Join either cohort — or both — show up to the first calls, work through the opening material, and send me a video of your playing. If after 14 days it isn't exactly what you needed, email me at [email protected] for a full refund. No questions asked.
Go by the two cards near the top. If your solos sound like exercises even though you know the theory, start with the Jazz cohort. If you hear music in your head but your hands can't find it, start with Play What You Hear. If both ring true, that's exactly who the bundle is built for.
Yes — that's the point of the bundle. They meet on different live calls during the week, and the material is designed to reinforce itself: the language gives your ear something to reach for, and the ear lets you use the language in real time. Every call is recorded, so nothing is lost if a week gets busy.
No. Play What You Hear is built for any instrument and any level — guitar, bass, piano, voice. The skill is connecting your ear to your hands, and we build it from scratch together.
No. You need to be able to play through a song or two and know a few chords. Everything else we build together, in order. The jazz cohort turns the theory you do have into lines you can actually play; the ear cohort works whether you've studied theory or not.
Plan on one live call plus a short daily practice — most players spend 20–40 minutes a day. It's built for working adults with jobs and families, not music students. And because every call is recorded, a busy week never knocks you out of the cohort.
Every call is recorded and posted in the community, and you keep lifetime access. You can also send your playing for feedback between sessions, so you stay in the loop even on a week you miss.
The $497 price (and the $767 bundle) holds until enrollment closes ahead of the first call on August 19th. After the cohorts begin, seats close and the price returns to $697 each.
You have 14 days. Sit in the first calls, do the opening work, and if it isn't what you needed, email me for a full refund — no questions asked.
The seats are limited and the price moves back to $697 once we begin. Pick the room that's yours — or take both and work the language and the ear together.
For twenty years I've watched the same two things hold players back: not enough language, or an ear that can't reach the hands. One of them is almost certainly what's had you stuck. These two cohorts fix exactly those two things — live, in a small room, with my eyes and ears on your actual playing. If this is the work you keep circling back to, I wouldn't treat August 19th as something to get to later.
P.S. — One price gets you either cohort for $497 instead of $697. The bundle gets you both for $767 — less than the price of the two separately, and the only way to build the language and the ear in the same five weeks. Both start August 19th and seats are capped. Pick your path and I'll see you on the first call.
P.P.S. — Not sure which one fits? Email me at [email protected] and tell me where you're stuck. I'll point you to the right room within 24 hours.