Solo Mastery
Build solos that say something — not just scales that run up and down.
You know your scales. You can play fast. And yet when it's your turn to solo, it comes out as patterns — technically fine, but not music. Solo Mastery is Rotem's full framework for improvising: over 40 concepts for soloing, 10 real performances broken down note by note, plus the shell chords, harmony, ear training, and rhythm work that hold a solo together. This is the flagship of the catalog and the one to start with if soloing is where you feel stuck.
30-day guarantee Lifetime access
Start herePreview
See how it’s taught before you buy
What you get
- 62 focused video lessons
- 10 full performance breakdowns (blues, funk, and original tunes)
- 45 downloadable PDF worksheets
- Lifetime access + future updates
What you need
- An electric or acoustic guitar
- Comfort fretting cleanly and playing in time
- A metronome app for the subdivision work
By the end
What you’ll be able to do
The curriculum
The road before you pay
Introduction
1 lessonRotem's welcome and the map of the course: over 40 soloing concepts, 10 performance breakdowns, and the listening and practice work underneath them.
- 01Welcome
1. How To Get VERY Good at Guitar
9 lessonsRotem's ground rules for actually improving: put practice in the calendar, play without judging every note, take care of your body, and stop waiting for talent.
- 01Be Optimistic
- 02CalendarBook practice before the day
- 03Don't Judge
- 04Mental Image
- 05Super Important Points to get GOOD at music
- 06Take Care of Yourself
- 07TalentColtrane's answer to talent
- 08The Journey
- 09Unlocking the Fretboard
2. Truth about Soloing
12 lessonsTwelve ways to reshape one simple phrase — dyads, rhythm changes, omitted notes, repetition — so a small vocabulary can build a whole solo.
- 01Add a DyadSixths and thirds sound great
- 02Change The Last Note
- 03Change the Rhythm
- 04Change the Starting Note
- 05Close Your Eyes
- 06Contrast Line A with Line B
- 07Edit YourselfSoloing is mostly editing
- 08Limit Notes to One String
- 09Omit Notes From the LineYour ear fills the gaps
- 10Perfect Repetition
- 11Reduce the Core LineFind the skeleton notes
- 12Repeat the Last Notes to Start a New Line
3. Solo With What We Know - Performance & Breakdown
2 lessonsTwo full solos, BK Vibes and Green Point, broken down to show the editing concepts working inside real playing.
- 01BK Vibes Solo
- 02Green Point Solo2-5-1 with shell chords
4. Music is THE ART OF LISTENING
6 lessonsEar training built on your voice: matching pitches cleanly, singing lines and finding them on the guitar, and learning how each note feels against a center.
- 01F Center & ColorsOnly tension and release
- 02Play a Note, Sing the Note
- 03Sing a line & Play it
- 04Sing a Line, Play a Line
- 05Tension & Color
- 06THE Center
5. Minor Blues - Performance & Breakdown
1 lessonA minor blues solo broken down, showing the colors outside the pentatonic that sit on each chord.
- 01Structure, Solo & Breakdown
6. Dat G Blues - Performance & Breakdown
2 lessonsA G blues solo plus a walkthrough of the 12-bar form and the changes jazz players add on top of it.
- 01G Blues - Chords & Solo
- 02The Blues Form12-bar form, jazz additions
7. Shell Chords
3 lessonsShell chords — just the three and the seven — and how they let you read real charts in time without choking on extensions.
- 01Read a chart, Play in Time
- 02Shell ChordsJust the three and seven
- 03WHY?G7b13 becomes G7
8. Deeper Look at Harmony
4 lessonsDiatonic 7th chords in two keys, the three chord families, secondary dominants, and how to dress up simple progressions with color and passing chords.
- 017th Chords + Shell
- 02Diatonic Triads
- 03Secondary Dominant ApplicationThe five of every degree
- 04Spicing up Shell Chords
9. C BLUES - Performance & Breakdown
1 lessonA C blues solo broken down, with altered sounds and a tritone substitution dropped in at the anchor points.
- 01Chords, Solo & BreakdownIncludes a tritone substitution
10. 34th Lights - Performance & Breakdown
1 lessonA solo that shifts between C major and Ab major, focused on the pivot notes at each key change.
- 01Solo, Chords & BreakdownPivot notes between two keys
11. Wanna Play Better?
7 lessonsImprovising freely on a real progression: analyzing the harmony, hearing changes as numbers, using chord tones, and zooming in and out of the changes.
- 01Introduction
- 02Harmonic Analysis
- 03Know & Hear the HarmonyNumbers instead of letters
- 04Scales & FrameworkThe F sharp makes D7
- 05Use Chords Tones
- 06Zoom In
- 07Zoom Out - Common Notes
12. Solo Trips - Performance & Breakdown
1 lessonA solo built on Eb minor pentatonic with extension colors, a major-to-minor shift, and chromatic ideas.
- 01Chords, Solo & Breakdown
13. Scales
7 lessonsHow to turn scale practice into music — composing inside a framework, learning the five positions by sound, and naming what every note is doing against the center.
- 01Be Creative
- 02Composing
- 03Listen & Am in 5 PositionsNotes over fingerings
- 04Listen Deeply
- 05Play a Solo in 5 positionsOne position at a time
- 06Tag it!
- 07Truth & C in 5 Positions
14. Rhythmic Subdivisions & Phrasing
3 lessonsTime work with a click: playing and singing quarter notes, eighths, triplets, and sixteenths until the shifts between them are clean.
- 01Introduction
- 02Play SubdivisionTry the click at 60
- 03Sing Subdivisions
15. Funky BRB - Performance & Breakdown
1 lessonA funk solo where the subdivisions themselves are the main idea.
- 01Solo!
16. Thank you!
1 lessonA short send-off and the one thing Rotem wants you to keep: give yourself the time to learn.
- 01Thanks!
That’s the complete lesson list — nothing held back.
This is for you if…
- Intermediate players who know their scales but whose solos sound like exercises
- Anyone who wants one sequenced path through soloing, harmony, ear training, and rhythm
- Players who can hear great lines in their head but can't get them out
Maybe not yet if…
- Total beginners still learning to fret and change chords
- Players who want licks in tab to memorize rather than tools to improvise
Students
What players say
“PLACEHOLDER — drop a real, consented student quote here about finally sounding like themselves when they solo.”
“PLACEHOLDER — a second consented quote, ideally naming a specific before/after.”
Real, consented student quotes go here before launch.
Buy the course
Solo Mastery
30-day guarantee · Lifetime access · Free preview lessons
Watch a lesson firstQuestions
Before you enroll
YouTube gives you scattered tips with no order. This is a sequenced path — each lesson builds on the last, with the practice material and the exact next step handed to you so you stop guessing what to work on.
The course page states the level plainly at the top. If you can already fret cleanly and play in time but feel stuck making real music, most of these are built for you. When in doubt, watch the preview lesson first.
Just your guitar and a way to play the videos. No paid software or plugins required. Anything optional (a looper, a metronome app) is noted in the course requirements.
These are self-paced. Fifteen focused minutes a day moves the needle more than a two-hour cram once a week. Every lesson is short enough to fit a real practice session.
Yes — you get lifetime access to the course and any updates to it. Learn at your pace, revisit lessons whenever a concept comes back around.
Yes. Every course has a free sample lesson so you can hear how Rotem teaches before you spend a dollar.
There's a 30-day guarantee. Work through it, and if it isn't the right fit, email for a refund. // TODO: confirm exact refund window & policy.