NBT tags cannot be included when copying note boxes with the middle mouse button,
This has greatly influenced the Red Stone music producers.
Linked issues
duplicates 1
Comments 4
Hmm, I can't find any ticket about ctrl+middle click not copying BlockStateTag, though I feel like one exists. I've linked this as related to MC-87296 and MC-141934 though since they're also about ctrl+middle click not storing states, but I'm going to ask around because I feel like there is a canonical report.
I think MC-133936 is also a problem of this kind.
Ah, yeah, that describes this issue pretty much exactly (so I'll resolve this ticket as a duplicate); the only difference is that BlockStateTag exists now so there theoretically is a correct behavior (but that's more of a feature request).
As a workaround, you can manually give yourself noteblocks of specific pitches. Something like this should work (I haven't tested it, though):
/give @s minecraft:note_block{BlockStateTag:{note:9}}
Note blocks no longer use NBT (since the flattening in 1.13); this can be seen by the fact that they can be pushed by pistons now. Instead, both pitch and instrument are stored in the block state. I vaguely recall something in 1.14 to store block states on items, but I'm not sure of the details – give me a minute.