 The guitarist places the index finger across some or all of the strings at a particular fret and uses the remaining three fingers to play other notes.Rather putting down the barre first, it is often easier to place the fingers and add the barre last, according to which notes are needed first.When playing notes above the twelfth fret, called "on the body", the left shoulder is dropped and the thumb stays behind, on the neck (as opposed to cello technique where the thumb can be placed on top of the fingerboard to assist in stopping the string).