April 19, 2026
Reasons Why Rehearsing is Important Beyond the Obvious
Here are four good reasons why you should rehearse for a performance.
By Eric Bowman
3 min read
Rehearsing is key and essential to any type of performance. Especially as a rapper, if I don't have my lines memorized, I'm fried.
So I pay close attention to making sure that I rehearse in advance multiple times so that everything is dialed in. I just played a big show. I had a guitar player and a bass player performing with me.
We ran rehearsals multiple weekends in a row in preparation for the show. And during that process, the set really came to life through trial and error. I noticed some certain things rehearsing does to make the show better beyond the obvious of being prepared.
Less to Think About
Rehearsing makes you less nervous for the show, which is huge. If you're like a lot of people, you're going to feel nervous regardless. But once you have your lines memorized, a large percentage of your nerves are gone.
This removes a lot of things to think about. You become more confident once the performance is dialed in and you know you won't forget anything.
Less to think about means less to be nervous about.
Humor and Crowd Banter
You develop banter and humor by doing reps of live sets. But you can come up with ideas during rehearsal.
When you start thinking about the individual songs and transitions while you're practicing, an idea of what to say in between comes naturally. And that likely wouldn't happen otherwise if you didn't rehearse.
Stage presence and how you speak with the crowd outside of the music is very important and helps you stand out in people's minds. It's something I take seriously. Not too serious because you should have fun with it. Nonetheless, it's very important and a big part of the performance I look forward to.
I try to rip a few jokes in between songs, and sometimes they go over well, sometimes they don't. It's better to say something than nothing.
When I'm watching someone perform who says nothing to the crowd in between songs and just performs, it feels a little forced and unnatural. I like it when performers remind us that they're human too.
You're not going to be able to prepare for exactly what you're going to say in these moments. However, if you have reference points to fall on, it helps a lot. While you're actually doing the performance, you should go off of the current energy in the moment, but it's nice to have those reference points to fall back on. I have a setlist with notes that I bring on stage.
Cater to the Specific Show
This is a byproduct of number two. You are able to cater the set to the specific show that you're doing. When rehearsing, you're setting points of reference to talk with the crowd; you can also tailor it to the specific city you're playing for or the artist you're opening for.
And make sure you say things that are relevant to that audience. It's important to know who you're performing for, and by rehearsing with this in mind, it allows you can do that. To make it seem like this isn't just a performance you do everywhere, but it's an intentional set.
That allows the current audience to engage with what you're doing. The ultimate goal of a performance in my eyes is to make the audience feel like they are a part of it; catering the show to where and who you're playing for helps achieve this.
What You Couldn't Foresee
You work out some flaws that you otherwise would not foresee during rehearsal. When we were practicing for this show, we recorded our rehearsal, and we felt certain songs were too long or carried on a little bit.
By sitting with the rehearsal after practicing, we were able to see this when we otherwise would not have been able. By going through the set multiple times, you start to get a sense of not only what's going to be a good fit but also what might not work the best.
You only come across these epiphanies by running through rehearsal multiple times, timing the set length, and treating it like the real thing.