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Template:BlockTileEntity

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

Obtaining

Note blocks are most quickly broken with an axe.

Block Note Block
Hardness 0.8
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default 1.2
Wooden 0.6
Stone 0.3
Iron 0.2
Diamond 0.15
Netherite 0.15
Golden 0.1
  1. Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Crafting

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Any Wood Planks +
Redstone

Usage

Playing music

Notes

File:2012-01-04 19.14.11.png

A note block being triggered and playing a note.

Note blocks play a colored 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.

Note blocks will play when next to a powered block. Each time a note block plays a note, a note particle will fly out of the top, with the color depending on the pitch (but not the instrument).

Pressing use on the block increases the note pitch up a semitone, with a total of two full octaves (24 semitones) being available to play for each instrument (bass is two octaves (24 semitones) lower than the standard range, giving the player four octaves (48 semitones) of effective range if the player needs to combine instruments for higher pitch coverage). The range of notes span from F♯3 to F♯5. After reaching the highest note, pressing use again resets it back to F♯3, as does breaking the block and picking it back up. The exact pitch to pressing assignment is shown below.[1][2]

Note blocks cannot be moved by pistons.‌[Computer and Legacy Console editions only]

Pitch (Octave 1) Number of uses Pitch (/playsound)
F♯/G♭ 0 0.5
G 1 2^(-11/12) ≈ 0.529732
G♯/A♭ 2 2^(-10/12) ≈ 0.561231
A 3 2^(-9/12) ≈ 0.594604
A♯/B♭ 4 2^(-8/12) ≈ 0.629961
B 5 2^(-7/12) ≈ 0.667420
C 6 2^(-6/12) ≈ 0.707107
C♯/D♭ 7 2^(-5/12) ≈ 0.749154
D 8 2^(-4/12) ≈ 0.793701
D♯/E♭ 9 2^(-3/12) ≈ 0.840896
E 10 2^(-2/12) ≈ 0.890899
F 11 2^(-1/12) ≈ 0.943874
F♯/G♭ 12 1
Pitch (Octave 2) Number of uses Pitch (/playsound)
F♯/G♭ 12 1
G 13 2^(1/12) ≈ 1.05946
G♯/A♭ 14 2^(2/12) ≈ 1.12246
A 15 2^(3/12) ≈ 1.18921
A#/B♭ 16 2^(4/12) ≈ 1.25992
B 17 2^(5/12) ≈ 1.33484
C 18 2^(6/12) ≈ 1.41421
C♯/D♭ 19 2^(7/12) ≈ 1.49831
D 20 2^(8/12) ≈ 1.58740
D♯/E♭ 21 2^(9/12) ≈ 1.68179
E 22 2^(10/12) ≈ 1.78180
F 23 2^(11/12) ≈ 1.88775
F♯/G♭ 24 2

Alternatively, there is a graphical version available:

Noteblock reference

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

Large note colors

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 material Instrument Sound names
Wood Bass guitar block.note.bass
Sand or Gravel or Soulsand Snare drum block.note.snare
Glass Clicks and sticks block.note.hat
Stone Bass drum block.note.basedrum
Block of Gold Bell‌[upcoming: Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 112: attempt to concatenate local 'text' (a nil value).] block.note.bell
Clay Flute‌[upcoming: Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 112: attempt to concatenate local 'text' (a nil value).] block.note.flute
Packed Ice Chime‌[upcoming: Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 112: attempt to concatenate local 'text' (a nil value).] block.note.chime
Wool Guitar‌[upcoming: Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 112: attempt to concatenate local 'text' (a nil value).] block.note.guitar
Bone Block Xylophone‌[upcoming: Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 112: attempt to concatenate local 'text' (a nil value).] block.note.xylophone
Any other material Piano or harp block.note.harp

Powering note blocks

File:2012-06-03 12.23.01.png

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 very difficult to hear since the sound of the button activating is so loud.
  • Since note blocks need a 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.

Data values

A note block has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block. The block's block entity ID is noteblock.

Note Block/BE

Video

Note Block/video

History

beta
1.2Added note blocks.
release
1.915w34aTheir power state is now controlled through a tag, and therefore can be controlled independently of any redstone signal.
1.1116w32aThe block entity ID is changed from Music to noteblock.
upcoming
1.1217w16aAdded sound events (but not the sounds themselves) for additional instruments (bell, chime, flute, guitar, xylophone).
17w17aAdded sounds for additional instruments.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.13.0build 1Added note blocks.
0.15.0build 1Note blocks can now be moved by pistons.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 1Added 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#, which is interesting since there are very few musical instruments tuned to F#.
  • The sound files for the note blocks can be found in assets/sounds/note, you can see that the harp sound is named "harp" and also that there is an unused sound called "pling".
  • You can tune a note block even if there is a block above it, however the note will not be seen nor will any sound be made.

See also

References

External links

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