Flight of the Thunderbird by Richard L. Saucedo 

Me and the alto sax are gonna bring the house down 🎷🎺

Something interesting to note. A thunderbird in native American mythology was a giant bird who flew the skies to bring the rains. If you listen it sounds like a rainstorm. The beginning of the song with the tubular bells are the first raindrops and the timpanis come in to mimic rolling clouds and crash cymbals are the lightning. at 0:25 that are the strikes of lightning. The flutes envoke a sense of flight and soaring through the sky. at 0:54 This is the bird majestically raining through the sky. The solo of the sax is the calming of the storm bring a sense of calm life and the goodness of rain rather than the lightning strikes and danger of the flute trills (fast winds)and rolling cloud timpanis. Very interesting when you play band you start to understand and respect music and you no longer wish to listen to trash pop songs with no meaning, message or value. You see music for what it is. A form of Expression to convey a story much how poetry and novels do and by using certain instruments to play a role(timpani clouds and thunder, tubular bells are raindrops, Crash cymbals lightning, flute trills are wind speeds, clarinet and oboe envoke the bird soaring.

this is one of my favorite music ever. it sounds amazing, especially the trumpets, baritones, and woodwinds at 0:23. them put together has an amazing song that would make someone just hum along with the part. this piece is just amazing, thank you to whoever wrote Flight of the Thunderbird (my band is playing this piece and we don't sound the best, but we're working there, leave a like if you have or you're playing this piece)

Such a good piece :) Who knew composers can make a piece with a lot of energy with only a 4/4 meter? I loved playing this piece, and it's hard for a Grade 2 piece, musicians, don't be fooled ;D

0:53 and 2:13 the flute and oboe part just for some reason reminds of me of super Mario galaxy

This is the greatest song I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing for band

Played this as an 8th grader! We loved playing this piece!

Just played this for my honor band, snare part was awesome

i’m currently addicted to the clarinet part in this song. specifically 0:52 and 2:12 just because of how amazing this it sounds

i was the drummer at the age of 12,sweat my arms man,this is some serious work!!

8th grade playing this as the snare drummer and i love it!!!!!!!!!!!!

throwback to my 8th grade year when i got my first honor band alto solo😂😂

I played the snare drum solo on this piece in middle school & this is my favorite piece of all time. I remember this piece gave me the chance to flex on everyone lmao

Currently replaying 1:30-1:40 over and over to get these stupid quarter note triplets right for this trumpet solo XD

i'm in 7th grade and in advanced band and this song is harddd and i'm on bells for it

Its such a fun part to play for me, this song is awesome

Omg the snare part was awesome when I played it!

How is this grade 2 oml

1st tpt solo with the sax, so nervous.

I wanna play this again so baddddd #1stHorn

the sax and flute in this song is amazing :)

we’re playing this sometime next semester. as a flute, i can already feel my fingers dying.

1:20 Don't mind me just need a time stamp to learn this solo

Played the 1st clarinet part many many years ago. Loved this piece.

the best concert band piece, nothing can compete 8) (i had the sax solo lole)

Great piece! That percussion part makes this look and sound like a grade 2.5. Especially at that tempo. Good stuff!

I play timpani and the solos are so nervewrecking!

First year our school opened up. All 7th graders in the band. Our first festival at Knotts berry farm. All superiors. All 1st places. This was one of our songs.( sorry I'm just really proud)

Ahhhh, freshman year :'^)

I miss playing this, I had the snare part, IT WAS AWESOME!

Wowzers. Currently learning this song in my band- pretty fun actually.

This song is so uplifting and inspiring I still remember when I first heard it

Like if your doing the solo

We may get to pick our music for our spring concert and i wanna play this

Measure 7: 0:10 Measure 15: 0:22 Measure 25: 0:38 Measure: 33: 0:50 Measure 41: 1:02 Measure 45: 1:09 Measure 53: 1:21 Measure 65: 1:39 Measure 77: 1:57 Measure 85: 2:10 Measure 93: 2:21 Measure 101: 2:34 Measure 109: 2:46

Played this at Redlands high school as a guest back in middle school band, electric bass, we as a unit did this piece proud with unanimous superiors on it and all our other songs.

Woodwind at 0:52 is just gorgeous! One of my all time favourite pieces

i played this in 8th grade (i play clarinet) and it was so fun :) i loved the energy that it had

This was commissioned for my High School Band, always loved it

My school hosts a band festival and I was in stage crew since I am in band and I heard this by another band and it was crazy good

Yesterday, there was adutions for the middle school honor band and we had to play certain parts of the song for a chance to get in. I didn't go in, knowing that I was the worst clarinet in the class at the time. I kinda regret that decision and I knida not regret that decision

The chord at 0:56 gives me chills every single time

The composer, Richard Saucedo is also the music arranger for the Carmel Marching Greyhounds, possibly the greatest high school marching band in history. Incredible

we just played this in band this morning i love this song

this is a great throwback to my freshman year, considering I'm now a senior in high school

so excited my marching band is playing this piece for our show this year!

I wonder which one he wrote first - this one or Fanfare for the Third Planet, which you could almost sing along in the background to big sections of this! He's a great arranger but sometimes you do wonder how they (and, e.g. Rossano Gallante) can get away with making two tunes that are so similar.

Just played snare part for this for our concert

This was written for my high school we are the thunderbirds and my director is Mr bittner like on the sheet. It was made to highlight the incredible sax solo we had

Best saxophone solo

This makes me want to watch Newsies (1992 specifically) and I'm not sure why but I love it

we are playing this for our 7th and 8th grade piece for spring band and it sounds so great!! we are also playing country wildflowers and songs of the whaleman! like if you’re percussion

I REALLY want to play this in class! It just sounds so...AMAZING!!

The 2nd time we practices this song in my high school band we sounded extremely close to this

Percussion gang wya

my favorite measures are 45-65, 71-76, and the last 4. i played snare drum but i wont ever get over how good the woodwinds sounded in this piece. almost got kicked off because i would be so into the saxophones i would forget to play at 65 😂

Trumpet fam where u at??

Dude I play French horn and I’m the only one in my class and I love my parts and the clarinets alto sax and trumpets they have great plays that they play

bro i'm playing this for my concert and it's so hard😭😭

I played the alto sax solo. It’s a great moment when you’re playing it

Nostalgia comes flooding back to me

I think it’s funny that a year ago I thought this song was hard and now I’m trying to play arabesque. (I play flute)

You guys are welcome. The person who wrote this song came to my school and was so impressed with our high school band that he created a song for us. And that song is Flight of the Thunderbird.

I played this in 8th grade. Im a junior in college now.... needless to say....Im crying

The trilllllllls!!! #flute

We are playing this for our field show in highschool. I like this song but it is a lot to memorise along with about 3 or 4 other songs.

i was gonna play 1st chair Clarinet for this for Honors band but it got cancelled due to horrible weather, but i got to play bass clarinet when i transferred schools. it was so fun to play both melody and a dope asf underpart.

and it's gonna be hard for the first flutes if there even is a first flute because there are like 3 first flutes but 20 second ones.

This piece packs a lot of punch for a Grade 2 work. Sounds like it would be a fun piece for a MS band to play :)

I remember playing this for pmea omg... French horn had the best part obvi

This vibe part is the best percussion part I’ve played ever. I don’t even like mallets that much 😂

Aye thanks for having this exist- our school's playing this song for a competition and it hElps, so thAnk you :D

1:21

It's a good song by Mr. Saucedo. However, I play Tuba, and what would be my part was lacking . . .severely.

This was written for my HS, Mahwah NJ!

I am playing this piece in school. Junior Band.

I remember we played this and got all 1s in middle school band, I haven’t played my trumpet since 😭

i played this for marching band this year its so fun

I have trumpet 2 on this in my 8th grade class and a H this is so much fun

That sax solo somehow reminds me of Plants vs Zombies

Doing trumpet solo and I’m in 7th grade best song ever

im playing this as bass drum 1 in marching band

amazing amazing amazing!! I love it♡♡♡♡♡

I played this last year in 8th grade as a percussionist

Playing it this year

I played this when I was in 7th grade 17 years ago and its still stuck in my head lol

Aww! My speaker died right as the last note was being played! :(

Timpani for the win!!!

Played 2nd trumpet on this song back in 7th grade but somehow got the solo written for 1st part (and aced it btw)😜

I am playing this song in a competition in April

my middle school band took this to a band competition in sanfransisco, i played the chimes and the xylophone very fun song to play in short the first trumpet guy missed his solo and i played the chimes too quietly (i didnt want to break their brand new looking chimes)

I’m playing his next year in March

F.horn at 2:55 is so awesome 💯

Why does some of the trumpet parts remind me of the sims 4 theme tune??

I play the sax solo for this best feeling ever

We play this at a all region clinic after I made first band 8th chair for French Horn

I played oboe for this song this year. Great instrument

I’ve got a sudden urge to rent a French horn and replay all my music from middle school

I love the sax solo! It sounds so good! :D

I made honor band as a flute in 7th grade and I can’t tell you how hard it was to breath, I actually wanted to die when I would squeak 😂