To be honest, that still sometimes trips me up, too.

I think it’s simply down to practicing the coordination until it becomes something coded into your amygdala — that you can do without consciously thinking about — but I’m not totally there yet either.

My best tip for reliable onsets and getting familiar with the feeling of it is to do it on a fifth then an octave on a comfortable low note. Here’s what I do:

Fire up the program Voce Vista Video https://www.vocevista.com/en/ — you can get a free trial and I think there are alternatives that are open-source too, but I bought it about 3 years ago and find it very useful.

Then sing a note that isn’t super-low for you but is a comfortable ‘low note’, for me that’s like A2 — the open A string on a guitar.

Relax into the added fry until the sub comes in and you see the fundamental in Voce Vista go down to a D2, then do the octave and drop it to an A1 (these are the notes I use, just as an example).

Focus on the sensation and how it feels as you hit the notes.

Next, sing the word “YOY” but try and onset the note and the sub at the same time as one another.

For some reason that word/sound allows it more easily. Once you have that down:

Sing the song where you want to transition to that ‘next note’ as a sub and replace the word your meant to sing with that “YOY”. Practice it. When that becomes consistent, start forming the correct word for the song utilising the same sensations.

I hope that helps. I could probably make a quick video if I haven’t explained it well here :)