Laurence Cooper   

Take out the old strings one by one and replace them with the new strings. After attaching the new strings, tune them. Begin tuning with the 6th string or the Low E. This is the string nearest your chest. Your strings must be tuned to the proper pitch. It would be best if you use an electric guitar tuner for this task as this will make it a lot easier for you to get the right pitch for the string. The tuner will be able to help you practice your ear to listening to the standard pitch that the strings should be on. This is good practice for those beginners who are still struggling with recognizing the proper pitches for the strings. The guitar tuner will tell you if you are on the proper pitch. Also, it will be able to lead you to the right tune accurately.

After which, you can begin with the stretching of your guitar strings. Hold your guitar as you hold it when playing music. Use your fretting hand, the hand that forms the chords, to hold the 6th string down on the first fret on the fret board. This is the fret farthest from your body. Now, use your strumming hand to gently pull up the string on the 4th or 5th fret. Do this on all of the frets, working your way up the fret board. This means you have to move your fretting hand to the 2nd fret and pull the string from the 5th or 6th fret. Then on the 3rd fret, pull the string on the 6th or 7th fret, and so on. Remember that your hands should be about 3 or 4 frets apart.

When your strumming hand reaches the end of the fret board, notice that there is a change in the pitch of the string. You will notice that it is out of tune and lower than the standard pitch. What you have to do next is to tune the string to standard pitch and repeat the process. You can stop doing this once the string has reached a pitch that is pretty much near the standard.

The same will have to be done with the rest of the strings. After the 6th string, work with the 5th and move down towards the 1st string or the high E. There is no definite number of repetitions to the process. This will all depend on the gage your strings are in. Notice that after every repetition, the strings are able to hold its tune longer. This would signal that your strings are being stretched more and more, closer to the full extent. And remember that you can stop stretching your strings when you reach a pitch near the standard pitch and when it remains constant and accurate as well.

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