The Paraguayan polka (polca paraguaya) is perhaps the best-known genre of Paraguayan folk music. Though the genre is called a polka and was originally derived from German and Czech polkas, it is vastly different. This genre often has nationalistic connotations and lyrics, or at least ones that are explicitly about Paraguayan or Guaraní pride. The easiest way to identify this genre of music is by its polyrhythms: the bass line uses a simple triple meter while the melody uses a compound duple meter (Watkins, 2000). Among the most popular of the Paraguayan polkas are "Pájaro Campana" or "Pájaro Choguy," or, "The Bell Bird," and "Galopera," or "The Gallop." These songs are meant to be danced to in pairs, and as such, as vastly popular at community events, with traditional dress being common for young performers. Polkas are usually played by a guitarist, a harpist, and a singer, though having two guitar players, an accordion player, and/or a bass player is not uncommon (Colmán, 2015). See the attached links for examples of each of these traditional songs.

The guarania is a musical genre invented by the world-famous Paraguayan guitarist José Asunción Flores and is viewed as the other major folk music tradition. Guaranias are very similar to Paraguayan polkas, often employing the same instrumentation and the same dual-meter rhythmic device as the polka with differing time signatures in the bass line and the melody, but they tend to be much slower and in minor keys. Instead of being celebratory, historic, or nationalistic, guaranias tend to express yearning or grief; remembering a lost love is a common theme. Perhaps the most famous guarania is the ballad "Recuerdos de Ypacaraí," a song that has become renowned worldwide and covered by many non-Paraguayan artists.