Rust Guitar Songs: Numpad Tabs, Controls, Chords & Every Instrument (2026)

Every instrument in Rust plays from your numpad. Numpad 1 to 7 are the notes C to B, holding Numpad + makes a note sharp, and holding Numpad Enter shifts it an octave. That is all you need to play real songs on the Acoustic Guitar, the Jerry Can Guitar, the Wheelbarrow Piano or any of the other instruments in the game.

This Rust guitar songs guide gives you the controls, the recipe for every instrument, and number tabs for 13 songs you can play right now, from Ode to Joy to Seven Nation Army and Megalovania. Every tab below was written for Rust’s 1 to 7 note layout and checked note by note, so if you press the numbers in order you get the tune.

• Controls
• Get a Guitar
• All Instruments
• Reading Tabs
• Easy Songs
• Popular Songs
• All 13 Tabs
• Chords
• MIDI
• Tips
• FAQ

How to Play the Guitar in Rust

Put the guitar on your hotbar, select it, and your character holds it ready to play. From there the default controls are the same on every instrument:

There are no flat keys. To play a flat, play the note below it as a sharp: B flat is A sharp (+6), E flat is D sharp (+2). Every key here can be rebound under Options, Controls, Instruments, so if a tab sounds wrong, check that nobody changed your binds.

How to Get a Guitar in Rust

The Acoustic Guitar (shortname fun.guitar) is the one instrument every player can craft without buying anything. It costs 100 wood and 10 cloth, needs no workbench, and stacks to 1. If you do not know the blueprint yet, put a guitar in a Research Table for 15 scrap. You will also find guitars on other players.

Wood and cloth are early game resources, so you can have a guitar in the first ten minutes of a wipe. If you want to know when the next fresh start is, our force wipe countdown has the date.

Every Instrument in Rust and Its Recipe

Facepunch released the Instrument Pack on 5 December 2019 as Rust’s first paid DLC. It added ten instruments and rebuilt the music system so every instrument plays real notes across octaves and reads MIDI. You must own the pack to craft these ten. You do not need it to play them: an instrument you loot off a body or get from a friend works for everyone.

The Wheelbarrow Piano and the Junkyard Drum Kit are deployables: you place them and sit at them. The rest are held items like the guitar. The melody tabs in this guide work on every pitched instrument, so the same numbers play Ode to Joy on a guitar, a piano or a sousaphone. Instruments are cosmetic in the sense that they give no stats, but if you like collecting looks, see our Rust skins guide.

How to Read Rust Guitar Tabs

Rust tabs are just the numpad numbers in the order you press them. A few markers cover everything else:

• 3 means tap Numpad 3 (E).
• +5 means hold Numpad + and tap Numpad 5 (G sharp).
• L1 means hold Numpad Enter and tap Numpad 1 (C, one octave down).
• A wider gap between groups is a pause or the end of a line in the song.

Tabs give you the notes, not the rhythm. Hum the song in your head while you play and hold each note as long as the tune does. That is the difference between a song people recognise and a string of random notes.

Easy Rust Guitar Songs for Beginners

Start with these four. They stay inside one octave and have no sharps, so you only use Numpad 1 to 7.

Ode to Joy (Beethoven)

3 3 4 5 5 4 3 2   1 1 2 3 3 2 2
3 3 4 5 5 4 3 2   1 1 2 3 2 1 1

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

1 1 5 5 6 6 5   4 4 3 3 2 2 1
5 5 4 4 3 3 2   5 5 4 4 3 3 2
1 1 5 5 6 6 5   4 4 3 3 2 2 1

Mary Had a Little Lamb

3 2 1 2 3 3 3   2 2 2   3 5 5
3 2 1 2 3 3 3   3 2 2 3 2 1

When the Saints Go Marching In

1 3 4 5   1 3 4 5   1 3 4 5 3 1 3 2
3 3 2 1 1 3 5 5 4   3 4 5 3 1 2 1

Popular Rust Guitar Songs

These are the riffs people stop and listen to. They use sharps, and Megalovania uses the octave key. They were moved into a key that fits Rust’s note range, so they sound right even though the numbers look different from a real guitar tab.

Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes)

4   4 +5   4 +2 +1   1
4   4 +5   4 +2 +1 +2 +1   1

Hold the first note long, then the rest come quickly. It sounds best on the Shovel Bass.

Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)

1 +2 4   1 +2 +4 4   1 +2 4 +2 1

Imperial March (Star Wars)

3 3 3   1 5 3   1 5 3

The three opening notes are even and heavy. Each “1” is long and each “5” is short. Try it on the Sousaphone.

Megalovania (Undertale)

L1 L1 1   L5 L+4 L4 L+2   L1 L+2 L4
L+6 L+6 1   L5 L+4 L4 L+2   L1 L+2 L4
L6 L6 1   L5 L+4 L4 L+2   L1 L+2 L4
L+5 L+5 1   L5 L+4 L4 L+2   L1 L+2 L4

Easier way: keep Numpad Enter held the whole time and let go only for the plain 1 in each line. If Enter goes up instead of down on your build, flip it: hold Enter only for that 1.

All 13 Rust Guitar Song Tabs

Here is every tab in one table, plus five more to round out your set list. Bookmark this page and keep it open on a second screen while you play.

Rust Guitar Chords

Press two or three numbers at the same time to play a chord. You cannot mix the base octave with the Enter octave in one chord, so these six are all built inside Numpad 1 to 7. Strum through C, A minor, F and G and you have the backing for hundreds of pop songs.

How to Use a MIDI Keyboard or MIDI File in Rust

If you own a MIDI keyboard you can skip tabs entirely. Plug it in over USB, make sure MIDI input is turned on in the game options, equip an instrument and play. The Facepunch wiki says every instrument supports MIDI in some way, and the Wheelbarrow Piano reads the widest range of keys. On the Junkyard Drum Kit each key triggers a different drum or cymbal.

1. Create a folder called instruments inside your Rust install folder, if there is not one already.
2. Put your .mid file in it.
3. Equip an instrument, open the F1 console and type instruments.playrecording followed by the file name without the extension.
4. To play it from a key, bind it, for example bind n instruments.playrecording mysong.

More useful console commands are in our Rust console commands list. If you run your own server, the rest of the server-side commands are in our Rust admin commands guide.

Rust Guitar Tips

• Numpad only. The number row above your letters does not play notes. On a laptop with no numpad, press R for full keyboard mode or rebind the notes.
• Hold the modifier first. Press and hold + or Enter before you tap the number, then let go. Pressing them together often plays the plain note.
• Count the beat. The gaps between notes matter as much as the notes themselves.
• Form a band. One player on the Shovel Bass, one on the drum kit and one on piano or guitar sounds great in voice range.
• Play somewhere safe. Outpost and Bandit Camp are safe zones, so nobody can shoot you mid-song. Out on the map, your music tells everyone nearby exactly where you are.

Rust Guitar Songs FAQ

Sources

• Facepunch Rust Wiki: Instruments (controls, MIDI)
• Facepunch Rust Wiki: Acoustic Guitar
• Facepunch: Instrument Pack DLC announcement
• Steam: Rust Instrument Pack
• Rustafied: Let’s Rock (instrument system notes)