Practicing vs. Listening

I knew a teacher once who told me that listening is half the battle. 'If you were to practice 12 hours a day, you should be listening to music for the other 12 and you will be complete, grasshopper.' No, but does everybody listen as much as they practice or vise versa or do you think it's a crappy rule to go by?

(I personally think it's worthy of praise, afterall, listen to this (i'm wailing away, you just can't hear me))

Well, listening is very, VERY important. I mean seriously, that's how you learned to talk as a baby... you didn't just lock yourself in your room for 12 hours a day and practice talking, did you? You listened to people that were good at talking and tried to emulate them. And so it should be with your guitar playing also. Way back when, there were few (if any) "Learn How To Shred In Just 14 Minutes" books and videos. People would listen to recordings and try to play what they heard. They would go to shows and watch and listen to the greats play. THAT'S where the best learning is from. Practicing without listening can only get you so far...

I agree.. Unfortunatly I don't listen very much myse, except when I'm write tablatures for different songs.. By listening you may find inspiration, but listen to very different music. Don't just listen to your favorite band, listen to other kind of music, different styles and then try to mix it in when you play or practice.

I agree totally with both except if you listen to a wide variety of tunes you won't have to consciously try to apply the different sounds into your playing, it'll just happen. Like... jazz/rock fusion to take an extreme.