to update, I'm now having a really weird problem, I can finally hit the last note, but I get a 'boo' midway through the hold.  I figured it was my mat and plugged in a controller and it still gives me a 'great' for the note, then goes to 'boo' even though I'm holding in the buttons, what gives?

Yeah, that definitely makes sense, but I notice that I hit 'Select' really well every time, even if I do it on 3 as opposed to between 3 and 4, the next one is consistently a boo

oh yeah, I know exactly what notes to hit.  To reiterate, I'm a good player, I'm playing through songs in the game mode on expert difficulty and passing with no problem, to get through up up, down down, left right, left right (left right) (up down) (up left) (up right + hold) shouldn't be hard, but the final not won't register properly in about 100 tries now.  I've installed the game to the hard drive so I can try it faster, but I just can't get the last note to hit, infuriating.

Alright, I need to second this post, the '30 lives' challenge is driving me insane after 2 hours of trying it.  The only note I can't hit is the last one.

 When I hit the second to last note in quarter note time it hits fine, and then hit the last note fast, slow, or in time comes out as a boo.  When I delay the second to last note I hit it fine and the same nonsense happens for the final note.  It's exceedingly frustrating to be stuck in the game this early and wasting hours on hitting what seems to be an unhittable note.  The closest I've come is an 'almost' but other than that I get 'Marvelous' on every note, and then a 'Boo' on the final note.  Help me before I snap the disk.  Thanks