There never has been a situation where the car pool comes or they have to go to class when I am cancelling the action. I am usually just satisfying a want or bringing up their fun.
I do have "no autonomous instruments", however, I have been using that mod for a long time now. Also it did work after I installed Seasons and the last update from the Official Site. I have always had to wait while they went through the tedius task of picking up the jar and shaking it or getting tips, but now they don't even go near it, just turn around and either do something else on their own or do the next thing in the queue.
Other sims can and do put in tips, they watch and clap, so all of that is the norm. I also deleted the instrument several times, a put in a new one, but still the same results.