Not orthogonal. Being a pro means you can practice all day, you get to work with other working musicians, you grind away doing gig stuff which really expands yo

Not orthogonal. Being a pro means you can practice all day, you get to work with other working musicians, you grind away doing gig stuff which really expands your chops. I agree music is accessible in a different way today, but kids used to grow up in musical families, and there were a lot of them. My entire, large, family plays music. And played together. Tons of people used to play piano, guitar, fiddle, it was not inaccessible or elite. Instruments have been cheaply available for decades. Also - time. People are constantly busy these days and hugely distracted. Eddie Van Halen literally got good by spending years and years alone, isolated in his room practising. So while that has nothing to do with pro/not-pro, it's definitely a cultural artifact.