What makes him so special is that, he was uniquely skilled in adapting both folk and popular music. Rather than noting racial and ethnic differences, he noted human similarities. Hence, he was able to blend African, Amerindian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Polish music in his "one-world' style. Here are two examples:

After a strong attention-getting chord, a single clarinetist plays what sounds like an improvisation, creating the effect of a chorinho player (Carioca street musician). A short phrase follows, which becomes the germ of the entire composition. It is played and sung at different tempos and meters throughout. There are heavy African rhythms, Amerindian chanting, the sounds of insects and birds, as well as other jungle noises. Amid all of this, a single trumpeter, perhaps on a lonely street in Rio, plays a jazzlike improvisatory passage. As the work moves relentlessly toward its ending, rife with African rhythms and Amerindian chanting, a heartrending Portuguese song is heard, Rasga o Coraco, leading to a full-throated, crying-out, final minor chord. Choros no. 10 leaves the listener breathless. Its premiere in Paris in 1927 brought Villa-Lobos great success there, after which is was choreographed into a very successful ballet.

There are fifteen Choros extant, from no. 1, a simple tango for solo guitar, to the incredibly beautiful no. 11, a sixty-five-minutes, nonstop concerto for piano and orchestra.

In these suites (Brazilian Bach), he combined the Baroque influence of Bach with Brazilian folk music. The Bachianas Brasilieras were composed for a wide range of instrumental and voice combinations during the musical education years 1930 - 1945. He believed that there was considerable affinity between Bach’s contrapuntal writing and Brazilian folk music, where each instrumental part carries its own melody.

Almost all the movements of the suites have two titles, one Baroque and one Brazilian. For example, the term Tocata [Portuguese spelling] is used for the final movements of the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 3 (for piano and orchestra) and the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 2 (for chamber orchestra). In the case of the former, the Brazilian title is Picapau (Woodpecker), for the repeated tones of the piano soloist sound very much like a woodpecker on a tree; however, it is equally characteristic of its Baroque title, Tocata, which means "touched," and in this case rapidly touching the keys. The other Tocata is his second most famous composition, O Trenzinho do Caipira (The Little Hillybilly Train). It is a picturesque train ride through the Brazilian countryside to the rhythm of a samba. Here the piano is part of the orchestra and the tones are different, but the effect is somewhat similar to the previously mentioned work in the Baroque sense. What is different is that we hear train whistles, cattle, the train slowing down and speeding up, brakes, and steam.