Note Block

This article is about the block that produces single musical notes. For the block that plays music discs, see Jukebox.

Note Block

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	0.8
Hardness	0.8
Luminant	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	Yes

A note block is a musical block that emits sounds when powered with redstone.

Obtaining

Breaking

Note blocks are most quickly broken with an axe.

Block	Note Block
Hardness	0.8
Tool
Breaking time
Default	1.2
Wooden	0.6
Stone	0.3
Iron	0.2
Diamond	0.15
Netherite	0.15
Golden	0.1

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any Planks + Redstone Dust

Usage

Playing music

Notes

A note block being triggered and playing a note.

Note blocks play a musical note when hit or when powered by redstone. A note block must have at least one block of air above it to play a sound. Notes can be heard up to 48 blocks away. The volume of a note block decreases as the player gets further away from it.

Note blocks play when on or next to a powered block. Each time a note block plays a note, a note particle may fly out of the top (if pressed too fast, notes may not appear), with the color depending on the pitch (but not the instrument).

There are 16 different instruments and 25 different pitches per instrument. Pressing use on the block increases the note pitch up a semitone, with a total of two full octaves (25 semitones) being available for each instrument. The standard range (for harp and pling instruments) of notes span from F♯₃ to F♯₅. After reaching the highest note, pressing use again resets the pitch back to F♯₃, as does breaking the block and picking it back up.

The bass is two octaves (24 semitones) lower than the standard range, the guitar is one octave (12 semitones) lower than the standard range, the flute is one octave above the standard range, and the bells, chimes, and xylophone are 2 octaves above the standard range. This gives the player six octaves (72 semitones) of effective range to combine instruments for greater pitch coverage.

The exact pitch to use-count assignment is shown below, along with the note's color, which is rendered with shading using the particle's texture.

Pitch (Octave 1) Use Count Pitch (/playsound) Color (hex) F♯/G♭- Fi/Se 0 0.5  #77D700 G - Sol 1 2^(-11/12) ≈ 0.529732  #95C000 G♯/A♭- Si/Le 2 2^(-10/12) ≈ 0.561231  #B2A500 A - La 3 2^(-9/12) ≈ 0.594604  #CC8600 A♯/B♭- Li/Te 4 2^(-8/12) ≈ 0.629961  #E26500 B - Ti 5 2^(-7/12) ≈ 0.667420  #F34100 C - Do 6 2^(-6/12) ≈ 0.707107  #FC1E00 C♯/D♭- Di/Ra 7 2^(-5/12) ≈ 0.749154  #FE000F D - Re 8 2^(-4/12) ≈ 0.793701  #F70033 D♯/E♭- Ri/Me 9 2^(-3/12) ≈ 0.840896  #E8005A E - Mi 10 2^(-2/12) ≈ 0.890899  #CF0083 F - Fa 11 2^(-1/12) ≈ 0.943874  #AE00A9 F♯/G♭- Fi/Se 12 1.0  #8600CC

Pitch (Octave 2) Use Count Pitch (/playsound) Color (hex) F♯/G♭- Fi/Se 12 1.0  #8600CC G - Sol 13 2^(1/12) ≈ 1.059463  #5B00E7 G♯/A♭- Si/Le 14 2^(2/12) ≈ 1.122462  #2D00F9 A - La 15 2^(3/12) ≈ 1.189207  #020AFE A♯/B♭- Li/Te 16 2^(4/12) ≈ 1.259921  #0037F6 B - Ti 17 2^(5/12) ≈ 1.334840  #0068E0 C - Do 18 2^(6/12) ≈ 1.414214  #009ABC C♯/D♭- Di/Ra 19 2^(7/12) ≈ 1.498307  #00C68D D - Re 20 2^(8/12) ≈ 1.587401  #00E958 D♯/E♭- Ri/Me 21 2^(9/12) ≈ 1.681793  #00FC21 E - Mi 22 2^(10/12) ≈ 1.781797  #1FFC00 F - Fa 23 2^(11/12) ≈ 1.887749  #59E800 F♯/G♭- Fi/Se 24 2.0  #94C100

Alternatively, there is a graphical version available:

Players can roughly check the tuning of a block by looking at the note icon.

In Java Edition, the tuning can also be checked by looking at the right side of the debug screen (accessed by pressing F3). It is denoted as "note:" followed by a number from 0 to 24.

Instruments

The instrument played depends on the material of the block underneath the note block. Note that these are groups of blocks defined by the code, not just the individual block.

Block	Instrument	Range	Sound event names (Java)	Sound event names (Bedrock)
Material: Wood	Bass (String Bass)	F♯1–F♯3	block.note_block.bass	note.bass
Material: Sand, Gravel, Concrete Powder	Snare Drum	—	block.note_block.snare	note.snare
Material: Glass, Sea Lantern, Beacon	Clicks and Sticks (Hihat)	—	block.note_block.hat	note.hat
Material: Stone, Blackstone, Netherrack, Nylium, Obsidian, Quartz, Sandstone, Ores, Bricks, Corals, Respawn Anchor, Bedrock, Concrete	Bass Drum (Kick)	—	block.note_block.basedrum	note.bd
Block of Gold	Bells (Glockenspiel)	F♯5–F♯7	block.note_block.bell	note.bell
Clay, Honeycomb Block‌[Bedrock Edition only] , Infested Block‌[Bedrock Edition only]	Flute	F♯4–F♯6	block.note_block.flute	note.flute
Packed Ice	Chimes	F♯5–F♯7	block.note_block.chime	note.chime
Wool	Guitar	F♯2–F♯4	block.note_block.guitar	note.guitar
Bone Block	Xylophone	F♯5–F♯7	block.note_block.xylophone	note.xylophone
Block of Iron	Iron Xylophone (Vibraphone)	F♯3–F♯5	block.note_block.iron_xylophone	note.iron_xylophone
Soul Sand	Cow Bell	F♯4–F♯6	block.note_block.cow_bell	note.cow_bell
Pumpkin	Didgeridoo	F♯1–F♯3	block.note_block.didgeridoo	note.didgeridoo
Block of Emerald	"Bit" (Square wave)	F♯3–F♯5	block.note_block.bit	note.bit
Hay Bale	Banjo	F♯3–F♯5	block.note_block.banjo	note.banjo
Glowstone	"Pling" (Electric piano)	F♯3–F♯5	block.note_block.pling	note.pling
Any other blocks	Harp / piano	F♯3–F♯5	block.note_block.harp	note.harp

Powering note blocks

A pair of note blocks wired to a clock circuit to play alternately.

Note blocks can be powered in a variety of different ways following normal redstone principles, however some ways of powering note blocks are more convenient than others or produce unexpected results.

• When a note block is powered by a button on its side, it does play a note, but is often difficult to hear because the sound of the button can overlap the note block.
• Because note blocks need space above them, note blocks powered by pressure plates or redstone directly above them do not make a sound.

Fuel

Note blocks can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per block.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.wood.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	None	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.wood.fall	None	0.5	0.75	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.wood.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.wood.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.wood.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
?	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.wood	1.0	0.8
?	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.wood	0.4	1.0
?	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.wood	0.23	0.5
?	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.wood	0.12	1.0
?	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.wood	0.18	1.0
?	Blocks	Walking on the block	step.wood	0.3	1.0
?	Blocks	When the block is placed	use.wood	1.0	0.8

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Form	Translation key
Note Block	note_block	Block & Item	block.minecraft.note_block

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Resource location	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Note Block	noteblock	25	Block & Item	tile.noteblock.name

Name	Savegame ID
Block entity	Music

Block states

See also: Block states

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
instrument	harp	banjo basedrum bass bell bit chime cow_bell didgeridoo flute guitar harp hat iron_xylophone pling snare xylophone	The instrument of the note block.
note	0	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24	The pitch of the note block
powered	false	false true	True if the note block is currently activated.

Block data

In Bedrock Edition, a note block has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

History

Java Edition Beta
1.2					Added note blocks.
					Note blocks have 5 instruments: Harp, Bass, Bass drum, Snare drum, Click. Pling is also added in the sound files, but is currently unused.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6			Note blocks are now broken faster using an axe.
1.9		15w34a			The power state of note blocks is now controlled through the powered tag, and therefore can now be controlled independently of any redstone signal.
1.11		16w32a			The block entity ID of note blocks has been changed from Music to noteblock.
1.12		17w16a			Added sound events (but not the sounds themselves) for additional instruments (bell, chime, flute, guitar, xylophone) to note blocks.
		17w17a			Added sounds for additional instruments to note blocks.
1.13		17w47a			The ID has been changed from noteblock to note_block.
					Note blocks are no longer block entities and instead are defined by the note, powered, and instrument block states.
					As note blocks are no longer block entities, they can now be pushed by pistons.
					Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 25.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of note blocks has been changed.
		19w09a			Added sounds to note blocks for additional instruments (iron xylophone, cow bell, didgeridoo, bit, and banjo), and implemented the "Pling" instrument into the game.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.13.0		build 1			Added note blocks.
v0.15.0		build 1			Note blocks can now be moved by pistons.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of note blocks has been changed.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.9			Added all new note block sounds from Java Edition 1.12 and 1.14.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added note blocks.
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Added new note block sounds.
		1.90			The texture of note blocks has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added note blocks.

Issues

Issues relating to "Note block" or "Noteblock" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• Note Blocks start at the pitch F♯. Few musical instruments are tuned to F♯.
• Because a note block is a wooden type block, a note block directly on top of another one produce a string bass sound when powered.
• In Java Edition, note blocks have the second highest number of possible block state combinations, at 800, beating fire's 512 and behind redstone dust's 1296.

Gallery

• 

  Redstone linked to note blocks, playing a simple melody when the button is pressed.

• 

  A concept sketch tweeted by Notch depicting what would eventually become the Note Block.

See also

• Tutorials/Redstone music
• Tutorials/Redstone music/Doorbell
• Jukebox
• Minecraft Note Block Studio – A music editor for Minecraft.

External links

• Search YouTube for the many songs played on note blocks

Redstone

View at: Template:Redstone/content [edit]