The popular music genre and the ensuing dance craze were at their hottest during 1963–1965. Letkajenkka is based on the idea of performing Jenkka music using non-traditional instruments. Traditional instruments for playing the jenkka, a Finnish traditional folk dance, are instruments such as the violin and accordion. In the early 1960s some composers thought of writing jenkka tunes for more contemporary bands with more modern instruments, such as wind instruments (for a more swing-like jenkka) and amplified instruments like electric guitars, basses, and drums (a more rock 'n' roll or boogie woogie-like sound). The form of the letkajenkka songs is consistent with traditional jenkka, but where the music is distinctively jenkka, the dance steps are not. Both dances are based on a lightly bouncing and skipping step. A rhythmic component that contributes towards the feel of a letkajenkka and distinguishes a letkajenkka from a regular jenkka tune is a distinctive pattern of either three crotchets / quarter notes followed by a quarter rest or two crotchets / quarter notes followed by a third dotted one in the end of its musical phrases that more or less coincide with the three consecutive hops of the dance steps. Regular jenkkas do not typically feature this rhythm pattern, at least not repeatedly.