There’s something simply classic and elegant about a piano. However, classical doesn’t mean traditional or boring, as classical or orchestral music is perceived. It’s energetic, subtle, and elegant.

As an instrument, the piano emphasizes power and subtle gentleness to every note. That’s exactly what the pianist Alvaro Arizcun is known for. Online, he’s known as Rhaeide. In his arrangements, Rhaeide shows everything that the piano is and more: energetic, subtle, powerful, elegant, classical, graceful and even rocking.

Featuring Rhaeide

Barcelona is where he got his start. Ever since the young age of 5, Rhaeide played the piano, loving every minute of it. A friend of the family-owned a musical school by the name of La Antártida. This is where he began his piano lessons and music theory classes.

Music has been a strong presence in his home from a very young age.

“I remember music was always playing loud at home as a kid. My mom used to have plenty of old cassettes and vinyls full of many different styles that let her sing and dance along,” He said.

But it wasn’t just his mother that had a passion for music, his step-father did as well. His step-father, Xavier Manau, is the trombonist for the band, ‘La Vella Dixieland.’ He travelled worldwide, performing in a classic old-school jazz band.

Music wasn’t only a love, passion, and way of life within his home. This shaped Rhaeide not only with the mere presence of music but also with the passion for it.

“I guess travelling to many of their gigs around the region shaped me somehow too, “He was immersed in a musicians’ lifestyle while he was growing up, “although up to this point, I’ve never had the drive to learn to play jazz music.”

As he grew as a person and a musician, his family let him develop his talents independently with his initiative – pushing only to stop him from quitting. His family still supports him even though they aren’t expressive about it. One person is highly supportive, and he’s vocal about it.

“My dad, on the other hand, has always embraced it with endless devotion, pushing me into making more videos, reacting to them passionately, promoting me and being my number one fan.”

With the encouragement to continue playing, but by his ambition, he flourished. By 14 years old, he was beginning to compose and arrange for the piano and the orchestra.

“As a musician, I would say my creativity started developing at 14,” he reminisces. He bought his first Yamaha keyboard for €300 ($438.19 Can) and spent hours playing music. With over 250 voices and a 6-track song recorder, he started to create his original works of music.

Rhaeide continues his career on YouTube.

In 2008, he started uploading his talent to YouTube, showing off his talent on his channel under the pseudonym Rhaeide.

Starting the YouTube channel, however, didn’t have such a clear line of inspiration. There wasn’t a specific trigger for the first uploaded video; instead, he admits it’s more of following what was popular then.

“I started only three years after YouTube’s release, it was the novelty,” He said, “I wanted to see how would it be to share my recordings with people from around the world like other artists were doing at the moment in a very fast-growing platform that YouTube was”.

The origin of the Pseudonym of Rhaeide

Rhaeide is not a name that originated from this world. The musician who came up with it was a big fan of fantasy stories, which had always inspired him. He was creative with music and enjoyed creating fictional stories in his mind. Although he had thought about publishing them, he never got around to it.

One of the stories he worked on for several months featured Rhaeide as one of the main characters. Rhaeide was a powerful conjurer on a mission to save a child whose fate was tied to a series of prophecies. The story’s arc was inspired by works such as Tolkien’s and Dragonlance’s, while the names were influenced by Game of Thrones’ “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. The musician chose a similar but unique name, coming up with Rhaeide. Initially, the pronunciation was considered only in a Spanish context, and many English speakers had trouble pronouncing it.

“I found I didn’t know how to pronounce it in English. If it ever reached the point of having to be pronounced somewhere, I would say something similar to ‘Raid’ or ‘Raidy,'” he explains, “but for me, the Spanish pronunciation is the one I’m familiar with. Any other just sounds ‘weird.'”

Cover Songs Galore

Regardless of the reasoning behind it, it paid off. His YouTube channel has nearly 50K subscribers. His videos have over 16 million views. The first video he posted was a Prime Suspect Piano Solo, reaching almost 7K views at the start of 2020.

The internet had a significant part to play in promoting and publishing his music and making it possible as a career. This is a channel that’s been around nearly as long as YouTube itself. Rhaeide likes YouTube as a platform without getting bored with it.

“It’s true there are things that I don’t like or haven’t liked in the past, but I’m a person that always chooses to focus on the positive aspects of things when the negative isn’t in my hands to solve,” He explains, “So in the case of YouTube I’ve enjoyed it a lot, both as a consumer and artist.”

The videos he uploads are covers with compositions arranged by himself. All of them, he has written by himself. Using a Canon Powershot G7X Mark II camera to shoot his performances, he gives his audience a ‘hands-on’ show.

Under the genre of epic piano arrangements, he doesn’t have a specific sound for his music. He says they’re flexible and faithful, “I would describe it as ever-changing, but mainly uplifting, since the way I do create is by following my emotions, and I can only play and find inspiration if I’m in an uplifting mood.”

Rhaeide Cover Songs

Cover songs, in essence, change the song in one way or another, whether in the style, genre or anything the musical desires. In Rhaeide’s case, he does his best to keep the music intact, merely written for the piano.

His covers are a way to give people an opportunity to revive the good memories associated with a particular song while enjoying the now. When asked about his favourite cover, it was hard for him to choose since he has multiple favourites for different reasons. A few of them have been inserted here.

“Dead Silence”

“My favourite arrangement to listen myself is the ‘Dead Silence Theme’ because I believe I was able to transfer the soul of the movie into my recording and I really feel the chills every time.”

“The Avengers Theme”

“The arrangement I’m most proud of is ‘The Avengers theme’; I still remember the amount of blood I sweated to solve the puzzle with that one.”

“Baldur’s Gate 2”

“On the other hand, I consider the ‘Baldur’s Gate 2 Theme’ to be the most beautiful I’ve played for the memories it personally brings. Also because it was my first ‘viral’ video and because I was able to perform it in a wonderful Steinway & Sons piano.”

“Beauty and The Beast”

“Finally, the one that has brought more satisfaction in terms of public response is undoubtedly the ‘Beauty and the Beast Prologue’. It’s the fan-favorite.”

“Ode to Oscar”

“Some other special mentions: ‘The Goonies Theme’ for its difficulty and energy, ‘The ‘Christmas Piano Medley‘ because it always brings my mood up, ‘Les Miserables’ for being the most emotional one, and of course, ‘The Horror Medley Part 1′ since it’s the one that put me on the map of Horror music on YouTube.”

But that’s not all Rhaeide does. He also has original compositions. There are some featured below.

“Autumn Maze”

There are several projects that he’s currently working on. As Halloween is coming up, there are ideas for the upcoming season of spookiness. Tutorials and a few collaborations are also in store for Rhaeide’s audience.

In terms of the distant future, it’s up in the air.

“I don’t really like to foresee the distant future, and I don’t have a specific goal that I want to achieve. Could it be composing? Or joining a band? Or performing around the world? Time will tell.”

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