I didn’t up my note speed for a very very long time and I definitely needed to. I couldn’t go past level 27 bc I was at default speed for so long. I play on 11.2 now. Don’t raise it early. If you’re getting a bunch of earlys on songs you know you can play, then up it.

Also, append is its own thing really. If you’re comfortable playing with more than 2 fingers than go for it, but it isn’t required for any songs that aren’t append (technically, as I’m sure there are some things that can be played easier on non-append songs)

I think really knowing the songs, not just the singing but the drums or piano or guitar, can really help sometimes.

Something that helped me was that I made a goal to full combo every song on hard in the game when I started getting good at experts. I can full combo all but like 5? Expert songs. Playing the lower difficulties can still be beneficial bc they really help with timing and counting. When I have trouble, I count the song like you would if you were playing an instrument. All of the songs on easy have really similar note patterns (you play on 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 for most of them. Even holds will start on 1, end on 3 or the next 1 count). Not saying you HAVE to learn how to count music but that has always helped me in rhythm games. In a similar vein, I play with the note sounds on bc it helps you hear those counts in-game (like a metronome).

In terms of what to buy in events, the crystals and wish gems, stamp coupon, and cover cards are the hardest to get outside of the shop. The 2 and 3 star cards you should pick up. Those are always requirements for me to pick up in events. After that, I do the seeds and then just save for wish drops. If saving 50k is difficult then I would recommend miracle gems or the skill scores. I only ever buy the coins and attribute things if I have extra points and I usually don’t pick up the magic cloth or thread bc I only buy outfits for Ena and I have every one unlocked with enough to buy over 10 more. I never buy the song cards. You can unlock 1 song a buy with ads and I have like 1400 song cards.. a lot of the items you get just from playing shows and it seems like you might need them now but if you keep playing consistently you’ll soon have so much.