My daughter picked up a guitar when she was ten years old and taught herself to play.  She also learned to play music.  By the time she had been playing five years she thought she was pretty good but the band she auditioned for told her to go home and practice her guitar scales because practice is the only way to become great. It took another year of hard practice before she was hired to play.  That was her first lesson in becoming a guitar pro.  No matter where she is or what she is doing, she still finds time to practice scales, even though she is now playing professionally.