Catchy Tune
My biggest pet peeve in video games (not just this one) is that you have to "earn" the right to play them. My philosophy is that if you lay out the cash for this thing, you ought to have the right to play ALL OF IT, not have to achieve certain levels of status, or jump through certain hoops before you have the right to see certain aspects, play certain songs, etc. In a word, the UNLOCKABLES.
It made me lose interest in the game pretty quickly. You have to take lessons to earn the right to try certain songs. Why not just give us the game we paid for? They advertise this giant plethora of songs to choose from, and then don't let you have them unless you undergo hours of training. The lessons are good - don't get me wrong. They are educational and instructive and all that, but in the long run, they seem like barriers to your enjoyment of the game. They should just offer the lessons as part of the menu, but not use them as something that stands between you and your entitlement to the songs.
The good:
It's fun watching videos of your mii and his/her buddies playing their music. Can give you and your family hours of amusement as you enjoy the fruits of your labour. (Amazon sells these kits of toy instruments you can use - similar to the kits of plastic golf clubs, baseball bats, tennis racquets, etc. They can be fun.)
The setup of the playing is such that you don't have to know as much about the technicalities of music as you do about the beats and rhythms. Keeping the beat takes precedence over learning notes. You are free to explore your own take on the melodies, as long as you keep some semblance of time.
Bottom line - once you put the disc in the machine, you have fun, but if you're sifting through your games to choose something for the evening, you might pass this one by if you know it's going to involve having to take lessons in order to earn the right to have a go at the songs - unless, of course, you want to jam to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star for the duration.