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Crafting

Note blocks can be crafted by placing 8 wooden planks in a square with redstone dust at the center:

Ingredients Input » Output
Wooden Planks + Redstone Dust Template:Crafting grid

Music

Note blocks play a note when hit or when powered by redstone. Redstone current only causes the note to play once, even if it is a continuous current. 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.

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).

File:2011-01-13 13.05.46.png

A Note Block being triggered and playing a note.

Right clicking increases the note pitch up a half step, with a total of two full octaves being available to play. The range of notes span from F#3 to F#5. After reaching the highest note, right clicking again resets it back to F#3, as does breaking the block and picking it back up. The exact pitch to click assignment is shown below. [1]

Pitch (Octave One) Number of right-clicks
F#/G♭ 0 clicks
G 1 click
G#/A♭ 2 clicks
A 3 clicks
A#/B♭ 4 clicks
B 5 clicks
C 6 clicks
C#/D♭ 7 clicks
D 8 clicks
D#/E♭ 9 clicks
E 10 clicks
F 11 clicks
F#/G♭ 12 clicks
Pitch (Octave Two) Number of right-clicks
F#/G♭ 12 clicks
G 13 clicks
G#/A♭ 14 clicks
A 15 clicks
A#/B♭ 16 clicks
B 17 clicks
C 18 clicks
C#/D♭ 19 clicks
D 20 clicks
D#/E♭ 21 clicks
E 22 clicks
F 23 clicks
F#/G♭ 24 clicks

Alternatively, there is a graphical version available:

Noteblock reference

The instrument played depends on the block underneath the note block:

Block Type Instrument
Wood-based blocks Double Bass
Sand / Gravel / Soul Sand Snare Drum
Glass / Glowstone Clicks / Sticks
Stone-based blocks (e.g. ores) / Obsidian / Netherrack / Bricks Bass Drum
Dirt and all other blocks Harp

Wiring

5clocknoteblocks

A pair of note blocks wired to a 5-clock redstone circuit to play alternately.

In order to wire Note Blocks to play a note, power must be applied to the side of the Note Block using Redstone Dust, or below using a redstone torch. Simply placing a switch or pressure plate on an adjacent block or providing power to the block beneath the Note Block will not work.

Chords with Note Blocks

File:Javaw 2011-01-15 08-41-38-61.jpg

A simple chord with note blocks

If want to get a richer tone in the song/sound you're creating you can bind different notes together into a chord, just like on any other kind of instrument. This will not only get a better sound to the song, it will also be simpler to place the Redstone. You can connect as many Note Blocks as you need to the same redstone wire, that eventually will lead to a pressure plate, lever or button.

Machine that plays songs

It is possible to link together a set of inverters, connected to note blocks, which are then played after each other when the first inverter is given power. This can be used to create songs, without having to manually give power to every note (through pressure plates for example).

Pressure Plates

Pressure Plates are also being used with redstone wiring to play songs. People remove the pressing sound by modifying the Plate's sound file in the Minecraft folder. They replace the press with silence, via the aid of sound editing software such as Audacity, then set the file as read only, thus preventing Minecraft from re-downloading the sound file. This enables a screen recording of the created song without having the pressure plate sound messing up their recording.

File:2011-01-16 20.05.45.png

A set of inverters connected to Note blocks, playing a simple melody when the button is pressed.


Other Information

  • Note Blocks can only play when there is at least one block of air above them.
  • Note Blocks use the same texture as jukeboxes but the top texture is the same as the side textures.

Uses

The Note Block's original intentions are to play notes for music. This is a great use for Note Blocks, however, there can be other uses that are as fun to use and give you a great opportunity to improvise the original intent of the Note Block. You can use Note Blocks to...

  • Create music.
  • Make doorbells - for example, you can connect a pressure plate or button next to your front door wired to a Note Block and it can be used as a door bell.
  • Come up with pranks, such as modifying the Note Block to be constantly playing notes and hide it underground to irritate a player.
  • Effectively design an emergency alarm. Like a doorbell, you can place multiple pressure plates outside your creation and wire them to your home so if something goes near your house you will be alarmed.

References

  1. Original chart by cookingfat here: [1]

=Songs

A briliant person created the "Portal Still Alive" song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG9SPywEGm4

History

Note Blocks were released on 13 January 2011 for the Beta release 1.2.

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