Improving Suno instrumental music using vocal commands

Suno’s instrumental-only mode often produces loop-heavy tracks that feel flat. After a few months of deep testing with Model v5, I discovered a surprisingly reliable workaround: write lyrics anyway — even if you never intend to keep them.

This article explains why that works, how I build tracks using this method, and a few advanced tricks for shaping musical structure directly from the lyrics box.

Using Lyrics as Structural Prompts

From my own use and from watching other creators, it’s clear that the lyrics field doubles as a structural guide. When I write prompts like:

• soft intro
• big rising chorus
• quiet breakdown, minimal drums
• bridge with gentle pads

Suno interprets them as cues for pacing, transitions, and dynamic flow. Even if I don’t want vocals, writing these lines shapes the instrumental far better than leaving the lyrics section empty.

When the Music Is Great but the Lyrics Aren’t

It happens all the time: Suno spits out a song where the music is amazing but the lyrics feel awkward or mismatched. Instead of throwing the idea away, I simply export the stems and mute the vocal stem. The instrumental usually stands on its own as a complete and satisfying piece.

I’ve found that tracks generated with vocals—whether real lyrics or placeholder ones—produce richer, less repetitive arrangements. By comparison, selecting instrumental only often gives me flatter, loop-driven results. Exporting the stems and keeping just the instrumental stem solves this. I get the full, dynamic backing track without any vocals attached.

My Go-To Workflow

After months of experimenting, this has become my advanced method for creating instrumentals:

1. I write lyrics or structural pseudo-lyrics to guide the song.
2. I generate the full track with vocals (Suno Model v5).
3. I export the stems and remove the vocal stem.

This approach consistently gives me instrumentals that feel alive, evolving, and far more interesting than what I get from the instrumental-only mode. If you’re producing music for philreichert.org or just exploring Suno yourself, this workflow is well worth trying. Keep in mind that I’m basing this on Model v5 with a professional license; earlier or lighter versions may behave differently.

Hacks I Use in the Lyrics Box

• Use stems to separate the vocals:  Sometimes the lyrics read well but they just don't work in the song. Or sometimes the one of the versions created is strong musically but the vocals sound weak. Don't fret, just use stem separation and remove the vocals. This is now your instrumental mix!
• Dummy lyrics as timing markers:  I often write lines like slow intro, drop to half-time, or big final chorus to steer the energy of the track.
• Rhythmic syllables:  Sometimes I type patterns like ba-da ba-da bump bump rising to influence phrasing and melodic flow.
• Bracketed notes:  I’ll write things like (soft piano), (strings rising), or (dramatic drums), and Suno reliably responds to these cues in the arrangement.

Why This Method Works So Well

Suno is trained to connect text with rhythmic phrasing and musical emotion. Even if I later delete the vocal stem, the implied vocal structure still shapes the arrangement, dynamics, and transitions. The result is a fuller and more engaging instrumental.

Further Ideas to Consider

• Lyric-Code Markup Language:  Design a tiny markup syntax for the lyrics box (e.g., [INT:soft 8 bars], [CH:high energy + synth lead]) that consistently encodes song form, intensity, and texture for Suno to interpret.
• Reusable Structure Presets:  Build a library of “code templates” for common song archetypes (club banger, lo-fi loop, cinematic rise), where each preset expands into a full lyric-code skeleton that you only tweak per track.
• Auto-Generated Lyric Codes:  Use scripts to generate lyric-code sequences from grids or metadata (BPM, sections, mood tags), then feed those codes into Suno to batch-generate families of related instrumentals.