Composing
Putting the most important rhythm on a light, high-pitched instrument is an innovative rhythmic technique that turns upside down the normal rhythmic conventions.
Reggae music puts the snare drum on beats one and two, and (typically) a guitar on two and four.
Music communicates to us emotionally through systematic violations of expectations. These violations can occur in any domain—the domain of pitch, timbre, contour, rhythm, tempo, and so on—but occur they must.
I often advise new listeners to jazz to simply hum the main tune in their mind once the improvisation begins—this is what the improvisers themselves are often doing—and that enriches the experience considerably.
Chorus
- David Bowie starman does a great job of showing how harmonizing cello and violin can add a lot of strength to a chorus
Adding Flair
- sometimes it can sound good to pronounce things and songs in an incorrect and peculiar way. Consider Space Oddity, when David Bowie sings "in the most peculiar way". It adds a little flair after the word "most". it adds character
Counterpoint
A Good example of counterpoint is when you listen to popular music, and you can swear that this is the same song as a different song. So you start humming the melody line of the other song over the current song, and it just seems to fit.
Another example is when you sing Frerer Jacques and three by mice over each other. Even though the melody goes in different directions for each song, there’s just seem to fit together. This is counterpoint