In favored rock and jazz, air notation almost always indicates only the basic framework of the melody, harmony, or performance approach; musicians and singers are expected to know the performance conventions and styles associated with specific genres and pieces. For example, the "lead sheet" for a jazz tune may only indicate the melody and the chord changes. The performers in the jazz ensemble are expected to know how to "flesh out" this basic fabrication by adding ornaments, improvised music, and chordal accompaniment.

Music can also be bent by describing a "process" which may create musical sounds; examples of this domain from blow chimes, through computer Stock Music programs which select sounds. Music which contains no-frills selected by incidental is called Aleatoric music, and is associated with such composers as John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Witold Lutosławski.