It should always be on ‘go’. The number you start with doesn’t really matter.
Yeah, that would confuse me, too. Who the hell does this? The main confusion I find with “ON 3” is that some people do a beat after three, so instead of “1-2-THREE!!!” they expect “1-2-3-DO THE THING YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO.” So anytime I do a three count these days, I’ll typically say I’ll count up to three and then a beat after they should do whatever they are supposed to do, because it seems to me that most people interpret “on three” to mean what would normally be “on four.”
…
3 5 0 1 2 5 go!
Before I opened the thread, I heard in my head Ol’ Mr. Ed, a jazz great from hereabouts. He’d always say “And-a-1, and-a-2, and-a-1-2-3-Go!”
But yeah, if you just start counting, then it’s 1, 2, 3, Go! But if you say “on three” then folks should be anticipating when the three will come out of your mouth and go with it.
nm
Additionally, in a musical context, the “go” point of that lead-in would be after the spoken “Go”, not on it.
It’d be a nine-beat lead-in (1+4+4) like so:
(beats underlined)
-
-
- And-a
-
1 and-a 2 and-a
1 2 3 Go!
- [Music " " " ]*
Then there’s the special count for taking off someone’s Band-Aid:
“Okay, I’m going to rip it off on three. Ready? One – two – RIP.”
I always heard it was “5 … 4 … 3 …” and the rest was silent.