I am trying to play a Minecraft song using a few note blocks, but I am using an iPad and cannot manually play them. Every time I try and hit the note block, it changes pitch. Is there a way for me to play a note block without using redstone on MCBE?
Minecraft – Manually play note block in MCBE
minecraft-bedrock-edition
Related Solutions
In my world I've built two different farms. The square farm and the sloped farm. Both of these are semi-automatic, that is you'll have to plant them manually, but they gather up the produce using water. Both farm types has loads of videos example available, but I've tried to explain them textually here.
Square farm
The main idea is that one single water block placed in the center can irrigate an entirely 9x9 area. So I fenced in an area of 11x11, left one grass block inside the fence to collect the produce, and replaced the center block with a water block, and a block of your choice on top of it.
Then I hoed the area, planted some seed and waited for it to grow. When it came to harvesting, I sneaked into the center jumped on top of the block and put down a water bucket. This harvest everything getting it ready for the next round.
The sloped farm
The sloped farm is also a common variant of wheat farm, and it uses some of the same principles, but it can be extended to even larger fields (which does take some time to plant).
The idea here is to have long rows of harvest, interleaved with rows of water for irrigation. The same rule as above still applies, that a water block can be used to irrigate rows up until 4 away.
One layout of this in beautiful ascii art:
222222222211111111
ssssssssssssssssss s stonewall
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH W Water
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH D Dirt
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH f Farmland
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH F Farmland
sWDhbhbhbhbhbhbhhH h halfslab on water
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH b block on water
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH H Halfblock
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH
sWDfffffffFFFFFFFH 2 Level of all blocks in column
ssssssssssssssssss 1 Level of all blocks in column
This scheme can be extended both column-wise and row-wise, if you are so inclined. Replace the last row with the last four rows, and/or the last column with the last 8 rows at a lower level.
I tend to use the water row for traversing the field to avoid stamping on the farmland, and for seeding. When the times comes to harvest, I temporarily remove the dirt allowing the water to flow down (i.e. from left to right) collecting all the produce and seeds on the last column of half slabs. Give the water a few seconds before replacing the dirt to stop the water flow.
Automating the water flow
One common variant of the sloped farm is to use pistons to raise/lower the dirt block I've suggested for holding the water. This is as indicated not available in MCPE ver 0.14, but I've been contemplating whether the water/dirt column can be replaced with a column of redstone dispensers (with a water bucket inside) hooked to a lever.
Final notes
There are two vital notes related to farming, and the first is that you need to be somewhat close to the farm for it to grow. The exact distances I'm not quite sure of, and have heard different numbers. But I once tried growing sugar canes around 40 blocks away from my home (as there was sand and water), and they didn't grow. After moving that field next to my main house, they grow like crazy.
The second note is that if you add sufficient light it will keep on growing through the night (unless you are sleeping). And the lights also has the added benefit of keeping most of the mobs away.
So in my current setup I have made a sloped wheat farm on top of my house which was built in a hill. North of it I've made a moot to keep mobs floating away, and then five rows of sugar canes, and then north of that a square farm for ransom produce. (On the south side I've made a fenced area for cows and one for sheep.)
From the OP, posted in the question body:
I deleted and redownloaded the app, and now it works as intended.
Best Answer
Method 1: Using Survival Mode and Hitting the Block
The way touch controls work is that tapping the note block for less than 0.5 seconds counts as a "use" action, which will change the pitch, and anything over it counts as a "hit" action, playing the note block at its current pitch, and continuing to press and hold will eventually break the note block. However, in Creative Mode, blocks break immediately after holding them for that time, so this method won't work.
So that means, to play a note block without changing its pitch, just press and hold it for 0.5 seconds, and release it before it breaks. This can get tedious though, because sometimes you might hold a note block for just a fraction of a second too short, and mess up the note blocks' pitches. This also means that each note coming out of the note block will be delayed by 0.5 seconds from your press.
Method 2: Using Redstone
If you are on Creative Mode, the only way to play a note block is using redstone. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to use repeaters and power the note blocks in sequence. You can easily create a note block "keyboard" by placing buttons on each note block and pressing them by tapping them quickly.
Again though, this can get tedious when you are trying to press the buttons, as if you mistap and press on the note block instead of the button, it will mess up the pitch. And another problem is that if you put buttons directly on the note blocks, you can't have multiple next to each other, or the button will power all the adjacent note blocks, like this:
This problem can be solved by placing blocks next to each note block, and placing the buttons on the blocks.
But there is still a small problem, which is the fact that buttons can only be activated at most once every second. That means if you need to spam one note block, it won't work out for you. But don't fret, because I have a better solution!
Method 3: Using Observers
This method is quite resource heavy, but it is best for playing notes as much as you want with the minimum of fuss! Although it might look a little weird, it works like a charm!
To play it, just flick the levers, each flick will play a note. You can even spam multiple notes at once by tapping the lever multiple times.
The reason this works is that levers can be toggled as fast as you can click them, without a delay or cooldown. And the lever is right next to an observer block, so this means that every toggle of the lever, whether off to on or on to off, will trigger the observer and play a note.