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What Is Rush E?
In the world of YouTube musicians, one piece of music strikes fears into the hearts of all who hear its name: "Rush E."
"Rush E" isn't a difficult Rachmaninov or a terrifying Mahler, however. Instead, it's a meme piece created by Sheet Music Boss, a YouTube channel best known for piano tutorials with an occasional sense of humor. That's why "Rush E" so feared: the channel made a piece that's literally impossible to play. Still, that hasn't stopped many from trying. Here, we'll run through what makes "Rush E" so difficult, and why it's been so fun for YouTube's community of musicians to try to play it anyway.
What Is "Rush E"?
Though it's usually a simple piano tutorials channel, Sheet Music Boss has dabbled in memes from time to time, as they did on May 19th, 2018, when they uploaded a video of "how to play" the Lord Marquaad E meme. As you might expect, the video simply shows hitting the "E" note on a keyboard.
The channel had done something similar before, making a video on how to play the B Button Emoji (just the "B" note on a keyboard). In response to that video, a member of their community jokingly asked them if they could make the "piece" Russian. Somehow, they obliged and were able to create a Russian-sounding piece using many tropes from Russian classical music that very quickly goes overboard with the number of notes it would require a pianist to play.
After they made their "Lord Marquaad E" joke, the channel followed up with "Rush E," a simple transposition of "Rush B" into the key of E minor. Though it's not clear why this piece went viral over "Rush B," it racked up 49 million views in four years.
While the piece opens up fairly simply, it clearly begins going off the rails towards the end. The first minute and thirty seconds sound like a normal, competent piece of music, but Sheet Music Boss begins taking advantage of the visual midi technology that powers their video for visual gags. For example, the words "Rush" and "E" are "played" in the piece, though they sound indistinguishable from simply slamming one's fists on a piano. By the end, the video is a colorful cornucopia as it seems like all 88 keys of the keyboard are played simultaneously. It's clear that no one person could possibly play this piece.
How Did "Rush E" Turn Into A Meme?
As anyone who's known a music nerd knows, the one thing they love is attempting to overcome a musical challenge, especially one with a sense of humor. Thus, the attempts at playing the piece started appearing on YouTube, many of which were frankly very impressive.
There was one particular moment when the piece went from meme to online legend. In June of 2021, YouTuber Litening posted an arrangement of the piece for one person.
While many listeners would be impressed by this interpretation, one listener was notably not. In the comments section of the video, user Fanchen said Litening's performance was "mediocre." This led to a comment war where one user essentially said "Alright tough guy, let's see you do it." Fanchen actually followed through on the challenge, and sure enough, he turned in an incredible performance of "Rush E," earning 11 million views and undoubtedly "winning" the battle he started.
Where Is The "Rush E" Today?
Currently, there is a seemingly endless supply of videos showcasing musicians joking about and performing "Rush E" on YouTube, making it arguably the most memed piece of "classical" music online. The latest development in the meme finds YouTuber Mark Rober using a "talking piano" to play the piece, racking up 23 million views.
For more information, check out the KnowYourMeme entry on Rush E.
