Maybe this is a stupid question, but I’ve been playing for 25 years and never know what to say when people ask if I’m self taught. I’ve never taken a lesson, but I’ve learned through tabs, chord charts, YouTube videos, etc., which are all materials created by other people that I used to learn. To me, I am clearly not self taught.
If that’s the case, though, what does “self taught” actually mean? Does it mean you figured out the chords on your own? You never looked at a tab?
People who describe yourself as “self taught,” what did your journey look like? Am I just using too rigid a definition?
Edit: After some great responses, it sounds like general consensus is that formal lessons with an instructor that can watch your progress, give real-time feedback, etc. is the main difference between self taught and taught, whatever learning materials you might be using.
This has been super interesting for me, though. Some folks in this thread literally learned chords by listening to records a bajillion times, which honestly blows my mind.