Wii Music focuses on creating arrangements of existing songs by controlling the members of an on-screen band.

In order to do so, players choose from a selection of musical instruments that are played by mimicking the required actions using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Unlike other music games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, players are not scored on their performance and are encouraged to experiment with different ways to play various songs.

[1] The game has been advertised by Nintendo as a means to "bring the joy and creativity of musicianship to [one's] home without expensive music lessons.

Upon release, Wii Music received mixed reviews according to aggregate scores with common criticism directed at its simple gameplay, imprecise motion controls and its predominantly public-domain soundtrack.

As such, it is regarded as the black sheep of the Wii series[1] and is also one of the least commercially successful entries, selling 2.65 million copies worldwide as of March 2009.

The game offers a selection of sixty-six playable instruments, including the violin, drum, cowbell, flute, clarinet, saxophone, harmonica, piano, guitar, trumpet, harp, shamisen, maracas, sitar and marimba, as well as unconventional instruments such as dog and cat sounds, pseudo doo-wop vocals (singer), karate shouts (blackbelt), cheerleader cheers, and 8-bit sounds.

[6] Softer notes can be played with slower Wii Remote movement, and holding various buttons can create damping, muting, chords, tremolo, arpeggio, and glissando.

[10][11] Before playing the selected song, the players each choose any of the available instruments and then perform as one of six different members of a band; the six available sections are melody, harmony, chord, bass, and two percussion parts.

[1][5] Consequently, players are encouraged to practice and experiment with different ways to play songs using any arrangement of instruments, either choosing to stick close to the guide or diverge from it and create unique compositions.

[18] Wii Music was given a score of A− by 1UP.com's Jennifer Tsao, who believed the game has a "surprising depth and flexibility" that rewards players who have mastered the controls.

She also felt that the game's four-player custom jam mode was addictive, but lamented the abundance of public domain songs in the soundtrack.

[27] GameSpy, who gave it 3.5/5, called the game an "odd duck" and something "more akin to a tech demo or social audio experiment" with little to interest adults, but is simple enough to be accessible to everyone and believed it would be a hit with young children and their families.

However, they also felt that children may enjoy the game much more than adults, who they believe may "grow bored of the experience in a matter of hours, if not minutes".