AN Ealing guitarist is forging a new path in music tuition with an innovative phone application.

Stuart Bahn created the Guitar Fretboard Trainer to help aspiring guitarists learn to locate notes.

“Surprisingly, most guitarists do not know where every note is on the guitar,” said Stuart, a member of the Music Masters Association, who has taught more than 1,000 guitarists.

“Many ‘get by’ using shapes and patterns, but, to reach the higher levels of musicianship, a guitarist must know the location of each note instinctively.

“This requires rigorous testing, under time pressure, on a real guitar.”

Guitar Fretboard Trainer prompts users visually and with audio to find the note using a sequence of prompts for them to change note.

As their skills develop, learners can speed up the prompts and increase the number of strings they use.

In contrast to apps like Guitar Hero and Rocksmith, Guitar Fretboard Trainer works on the principle of finding notes efficiently.

Stuart, a former Academy of Music and Sound course leader, said: “Animations and points-based games are great for entertainment, but for people serious about improving their playing, I’d like to see better learning tools, like this, produced for guitarists.”

Guitar Fretboard Trainer is available on Android devices for £1.49 at Google Play: http://goo.gl/HU2zet and Amazon: http://goo.gl/Gp9pE5