Pupils and Amateurs?

[Tim Twiss]

The front of the Buckley New Banjo Method of 1860 states that the book's pieces are arranged "for the use of pupils and amatuers". Holy crap!!! What did the professionals do? That stuff is not all that simple.

[Strumelia]

Maybe the tutor authors didn't want any of their students to get too full of themselves and start teaching others (thus robbing the instructors of their jobs, or at the very least making them seem less masterful).  So they made sure to firmly plant the seed in the student's mind that even if they could play the whole book perfectly, they'd still be 'amateurs'.... lol!