Suno Prompts: Vocals, Lyrics and Instrumental Music

Write a Suno prompt as a style brief: genre and mood, tempo, instruments, vocal delivery, arrangement. Your words go in the lyrics field; for an instrumental, set the instrumental flag alongside the brief. In four samples we made with Suno v6 on November 12, 2026, each pair came back with different arrangements, and the longer briefs still missed instruments.

Press play as you read. Each clip is the first 45 seconds of a real take, and every caption gives the length of the full song. Full-track lengths were measured with ffprobe; the notes on voice, instruments and timing come from Gemini 3.8 Flash, which listened to each full track, so those timestamps and instrument names are approximate, and the clips let you check them yourself. Two takes use the same original lyrics, so you can compare two arrangements over the same words; the other two are instrumentals, where the detailed brief asked for a beat the notes did not identify.

The five slots of a style brief

A brief that fills these five reads like a note to a session band. Suno's music glossary (checked November 12, 2026) makes the same point: pair a tempo word with a genre, name the instruments you want, and use structure words to shape the song. Its summary is direct: "The more specific your musical vocabulary, the more control you have over your Suno creations!"

On the voice slot, Suno's help page on singer gender (checked November 12, 2026) says to write "male" or "female" in the description, and that the app's advanced options also offer a Vocal Gender control.

Start with those five, then add one line about the intro or the ending if the song needs a shape.

Two vocal takes, same words

The two requests carried the same lyrics, the title Windows Open and the same model, with a different style brief.

Simple brief

An upbeat indie pop song.

Programmed drums, synth bass and keys carry a clean indie-pop backing, and the automated listening notes put the first chorus about 0:33 in. Those notes describe a smooth, breathy lead that is hard to place as male or female, which is what a one-line brief leaves open.

Detailed brief

Bright indie pop at a relaxed 96 BPM. One clear, close female lead vocal, conversational verses and a warm, open chorus. Clean electric guitar, rounded bass, tight dry drums, light handclaps in the chorus. Start with a short guitar intro, keep the verses sparse, and add layered backing harmonies only to the final chorus. Sing the supplied lyrics in English.

The notes describe a close, gentle female-sounding lead, a chorus at 0:21, and a transcription that matched our first verse and chorus. The opening is where the brief and the result part: we asked for a short guitar intro, and the notes describe electric keys and a soft drum beat, with no guitar named in the track. Keys, synth bass and electronic drums carry it.

The pair differs in singer and shape: the detailed take has a closer lead and an earlier chorus, and it is also the shorter song. That is one pair of results to compare, and which line did the work is still open. Our Suno v6 review runs three other prompts through v6 and v4.5 if you want more examples.

Two instrumentals, one flag

Both requests set parameters.instrumental to true and sent no lyrics. The simple brief named a mood; the detailed one named instruments, a tempo and a shape.

Simple brief

Calm electronic instrumental music.

The notes list electric piano, lo-fi drums, electric bass, synth pads and vinyl crackle, with the beat landing at 0:05, a breakdown where the drums drop out, and no voice.

Detailed brief

Instrumental ambient downtempo around 72 BPM. Soft electric piano, warm rounded bass and sparse brushed percussion. Quiet, intimate studio sound. Start with solo electric piano, bring in a restrained beat for the middle section, then let the piano carry a gentle ending. No vocals or vocal textures.

Here the requested brushed percussion is what did not come through. We asked for solo piano, sparse brushed drums in the middle and a piano ending; the notes list piano, chimes or music-box bells, warm pads and a low synth drone, and they did not pick out brushed drums or a steady beat. Piano, chimes and pads carry the arrangement.

Both instrumentals came back with no vocal, which is what the flag is for. The detailed one also shows the limit of naming instruments: the mood landed, the notes did not find the drums we named.

Your words go in the lyrics field

Custom lyrics are their own field. On OmniaKey's audio API that field is input.lyrics, and any non-empty value switches the request into custom-lyrics mode; the style then comes from input.prompt, parameters.style or parameters.tags. Both vocal takes above sent the same words:

[Verse 1]
I put the kettle on before the morning train
The window catches circles in the rain
A little light is moving on the floor
I leave my heavy coat beside the door

[Chorus]
Windows open, let the morning in
We can take the long way home again
One small step and then another one
There is room for us beneath the sun

[Verse 2]
The empty street is waking one by one
A paper boat goes drifting past the sun
I call your name across the kitchen light
We made it through another quiet night

[Chorus]
Windows open, let the morning in
We can take the long way home again
One small step and then another one
There is room for us beneath the sun

Keep the labels in the lyrics, out of the style brief. They are cues borrowed from songwriting practice; Suno's glossary defines verse, chorus, bridge and pre-chorus as song sections, and the help pages we read do not describe bracket tags, so treat a label as a request rather than official grammar. In both takes the automated transcription matched our first verse and chorus, with a chorus about 0:33 into one and 0:21 into the other.

Suno's own-lyrics help page (checked November 12, 2026) says you retain ownership and rights to original lyrics you write and input.

Both takes sang in English, and the notes heard English in both.

What the API receives

One request returns one finished MP3. generate is the operation that runs, and there is no length setting to send. The smallest instrumental request for the detailed track above looks like this:

{
  "model": "suno-v6",
  "type": "audio",
  "operation": "generate",
  "input": {
    "prompt": "Instrumental ambient downtempo around 72 BPM. Soft electric piano, warm rounded bass and sparse brushed percussion. Quiet, intimate studio sound. Start with solo electric piano, bring in a restrained beat for the middle section, then let the piano carry a gentle ending. No vocals or vocal textures."
  },
  "parameters": {
    "instrumental": true,
    "n": 1
  }
}

n must be 1; higher values are rejected. OmniaKey's audio API docs (checked November 12, 2026) list the fields below; for a vocal song they split like this:

Put the brief in one place and the words in the other. When lyrics are present, parameters.style wins over input.prompt: editing the prompt will not change the style while the style field is set.

The longer version, with polling and a download step, is in our Suno API guide and its full Python client.

Change one instruction at a time

These two pairs changed several things at once: brief length, tempo, vocal delivery, instruments and arrangement. That makes them useful before-and-after clips and a poor way to learn which line did the work.

For your next take, keep the whole brief and edit one sentence. If the beat is too busy, change only the drum sentence and leave the singer, tempo and intro alone. If the voice is wrong, change only the singer sentence.

That way the next comparison tells you something, even when the result still surprises you.

Three wordings to test next

These are shapes to try; the results are still unknown. The four clips above are the only takes we have run, so the lines below are untested.

Slow soul ballad, warm male baritone, Hammond organ, muted trumpet fills, brushed drums, gospel backing harmonies in the last chorus.

Solo nylon-string guitar piece, close microphone in a small room, light tape hiss, no drums, gentle pauses between phrases.

Indie folk song that opens with acoustic guitar and voice, adds upright bass and brushed drums in verse two, and drops back to voice and guitar for the last chorus.

Write each one as instructions to a player: what the instrument is, how it should sound, and when it enters. Then listen for the one thing you named most precisely.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a different prompt for Suno v6?

Treat the five slots as a starting point and iterate. All four clips above came from v6 with the same slot structure, and the two detailed takes are one round of iteration, so keep the brief short enough that you can point at the line behind each sound.

Where do my own lyrics go?

In the lyrics field, outside the style brief. On the API that is input.lyrics; in the browser it is the lyrics box. Suno's help page says original lyrics you write remain yours.

How do I get an instrumental with no vocals?

Set parameters.instrumental to true and leave the lyrics out. Both instrumental takes above came back with no voice. On OmniaKey the lyrics box disappears while that flag is on.

Does specifying BPM guarantee the tempo?

The 96 BPM and 72 BPM in the prompts above are requests, not measurements; the notes only describe the result as relaxed or slow. If tempo matters, play the clip and count, then adjust the wording in the next take.

Sources checked

• Suno Help: Music Glossary — prompt tips and section names, checked November 12, 2026.
• Suno Help: Can I use my own lyrics? — the lyrics field and ownership, checked November 12, 2026.
• Suno Help: Can I choose the gender of the singer? — male and female voice wording, checked November 12, 2026.

To hear these briefs with no code, open the AI audio generator; the same model is on the Suno v6 page.