Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Murphy's Law of Auto Mechanics

This comes up every once in a while in lessons: a student will play a piece for me, and then we'll encounter a problem. We'll stop, go back to the problem area and try to replicate it, paying careful attention to that spot in the music. But more often than not, the passage goes perfectly when subjected to such further scrutiny. However, in a later rendition, the same mistake may crop up again, but only if it's not expected to happen. I think this is a variation of Murphy's Law...
MURPHY'S LAW OF AUTO MECHANICS:
Your car will start making a funny noise at an inopportune time, forcing you to take it into the shop. Once there, the mechanic will not be able to get the car to replicate the offending noise no matter how many times he/she tries. However, the noise will return promptly upon your leaving for home.
Has this ever happened to you? I sure see the musical version all the time in teaching, and it happened more than once today, so I thought it was blog-worthy. Chime in using the comments if you can relate to this.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

my '96 Lumina makes a funny noise ONLY when the air control is set to 0. if it's at 1-4, there is no noise, but if it's at zero, a funny noise happens. jiffy lube didnt fix this. :-( - J-guar