Painful fingertips instead of joy of music - that's the lot of many sitar players. The remedy for this problem is building strong callus by means of regular and intense stimulation. Ideally, the fingertips get sufficient stimulation through consistent daily practice. But in everyday life, it is often difficult to find enough time for this regularity, or there might be long periods without any practice, e.g. due to illness or travel. These widespread practical problems can be solved by using the StringGym training device.

StringGym consists of a piece of steel wire with the diameter of a typical sitar string, which is suspended in a plastic holder. The device is held between the thumb and fingers. For training place one or two fingers on the wire as you would when playing the sitar. By pressing your fingertips firmly onto the wire, you can imitate the typical stress of sitar playing and thereby stimulate callus growth. The gripping power of your fingers gets strengthened like that, too.

StringGym fits into any pocket. Therefore you can train your fingers anytime and anywhere  - e.g. during travel in cars, buses or trains, while watching TV or surfing the internet, in school, university or office, alone or in company. That way you can grow and maintain strong callus without an instrument and without spending additional time. And
when you sit with your sitar you are rewarded by painless enjoyment.

StringGym was originally developed for his own use by German engineer and sitar player Marco Paschkowski. Painful fingertips are no longer an issue for him ever since. Another of Marco's very helpful inventions is the sitar holder SitarFlex, which keeps the sitar in playing position independently of the player.

StringGym review by Jeff Starr.

StringGym video instruction: fixing the wire