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Duncan Geere Mojang avatar

Note blocks were added to Minecraft alongside charcoal, lapis lazuli, dispensers, cake and squid in version Beta 1.2, which was released on 13 January 2011. That makes them seven years old, probably older than some of our youngest players. "Right click to tune, trigger to play" were the instructions given in the release notes at the time, which still hold true today. When you hit one or give it a redstone pulse, a little note will pop out of the top and anyone within 48 blocks will hear a sound - with the volume decreasing as you get further away.

Duncan Geere[1]

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[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 Planks +
Redstone Dust

Usage

Playing music

Notes

Note-Block

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 pressing assignment is shown below.[2][3]

Pitch (Octave 1) Number of uses Pitch (/playsound)
F♯/G♭- Fa♯/Sol♭ 0 0.5
G - Sol 1 2^(-11/12) ≈ 0.529732
G♯/A♭- Sol♯/La♭ 2 2^(-10/12) ≈ 0.561231
A - La 3 2^(-9/12) ≈ 0.594604
A♯/B♭- La♯/Si♭ 4 2^(-8/12) ≈ 0.629961
B - Si 5 2^(-7/12) ≈ 0.667420
C - Do 6 2^(-6/12) ≈ 0.707107
C♯/D♭- Do♯/Re♭ 7 2^(-5/12) ≈ 0.749154
D - Re 8 2^(-4/12) ≈ 0.793701
D♯/E♭- Re♯/Mi♭ 9 2^(-3/12) ≈ 0.840896
E - Mi 10 2^(-2/12) ≈ 0.890899
F - Fa 11 2^(-1/12) ≈ 0.943874
F♯/G♭- Fa♯/Sol♭ 12 1
Pitch (Octave 2) Number of uses Pitch (/playsound)
F♯/G♭- Fa♯/Sol♭ 12 1
G - Sol 13 2^(1/12) ≈ 1.059463
G♯/A♭- Sol♯/La♭ 14 2^(2/12) ≈ 1.122462
A - La 15 2^(3/12) ≈ 1.189207
A♯/B♭- La♯/Si♭ 16 2^(4/12) ≈ 1.259921
B - Si 17 2^(5/12) ≈ 1.334840
C - Do 18 2^(6/12) ≈ 1.414214
C♯/D♭- Do♯/Re♭ 19 2^(7/12) ≈ 1.498307
D - Re 20 2^(8/12) ≈ 1.587401
D♯/E♭- Re♯/Mi♭ 21 2^(9/12) ≈ 1.681793
E - Mi 22 2^(10/12) ≈ 1.781797
F - Fa 23 2^(11/12) ≈ 1.887749
F♯/G♭- Fa♯/Sol♭ 24 2

Alternatively, there is a graphical version available:

Noteblock reference

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

Note colors

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 (Contrabass) 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 Clicks and SticksFile:Note block click.ogg block.note_block.hat note.hat
Material: Stone, Netherrack, Warped Nylium, Crimson Nylium Bass Drum (Kick)File:Note block bass drum.ogg block.note_block.basedrum note.bd
Block of Gold Bells (Glockenspiel) F♯5–F♯7 block.note_block.bell note.bell
Clay Flute F♯4–F♯6 block.note_block.flute note.flute
Compressed Ice ChimesFile:Note block chime.ogg F♯5–F♯7 block.note_block.chime note.chime
Wool Guitar F♯2–F♯4 block.note_block.guitar note.guitar
Bone Block XylophoneFile:Note block xylophone.ogg 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

NoteBlockRedstone

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:

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Block brokenBlocksOnce the block has brokenblock.wood.breaksubtitles.block.generic.break1.00.816
Block placedBlocksWhen the block is placedblock.wood.placesubtitles.block.generic.place1.00.816
Block breakingBlocksWhile the block is in the process of being brokenblock.wood.hitsubtitles.block.generic.hit0.250.516
None[sound 1]Entity-DependentFalling on the block with fall damageblock.wood.fallNone[sound 1]0.50.7516
FootstepsEntity-DependentWalking on the blockblock.wood.stepsubtitles.block.generic.footsteps0.151.016
  1. a b MC-177082

Bedrock Edition:

SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
BlocksOnce the block has brokendig.wood1.00.8-1.0
BlocksWhen the block is placeddig.wood1.00.8
BlocksWhile the block is in the process of being brokenhit.wood0.230.5
PlayersFalling on the block with fall damagefall.wood0.41.0
PlayersWalking on the blockstep.wood0.31.0
PlayersJumping from the blockjump.wood0.121.0
PlayersFalling on the block without fall damageland.wood0.181.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierTranslation key
Note Blocknote_blockblock.minecraft.note_block

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
Note Blocknoteblock25tile.noteblock.name
NameSavegame ID
Block entity?

Block states

See also: Block states

Java Edition:

Name Default value Allowed values Description
instrumentharpbanjo
basedrum
bass
bell
bit
chime
cow_bell
creeper
custom_head
didgeridoo
dragon
flute
guitar
harp
hat
iron_xylophone
piglin
pling
skeleton
snare
wither_skeleton
xylophone
zombie
The instrument of the note block.
note00
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
poweredfalsefalse
true
True if the note block is currently activated.

Video

History

beta
1.2File:Note Block Revision 1.png 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
1.915w34aThe power state of note blocks is now controlled through a tag, and therefore can now be controlled independently of any redstone signal.
1.1116w32aThe block entity ID of note blocks has been changed from Music to noteblock.
1.1217w16aAdded sound events (but not the sounds themselves) for additional instruments (bell, chime, flute, guitar, xylophone) to note blocks.
17w17aAdded sounds for additional instruments to note blocks.
1.1317w47aThe 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.
Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 25.
1.1418w43aNote Block The texture of note blocks has been changed.
19w09aAdded 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
0.13.0build 1File:Note Block Revision 1.png Added note blocks.
0.15.0build 1Note blocks can now be moved by pistons.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Note Block The texture of note blocks has been changed.
1.13.0beta 1.13.0.9Added all new note block sounds from Java Edition 1.12 and 1.14.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 11.0.1File:Note Block Revision 1.png Added note blocks.
TU53CU43 1.49 Patch 231.0.3Added new note block sounds.
1.90 Note Block The texture of note blocks has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0File:Note Block Revision 1.png 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.
  • 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

See also

References

External links

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