Most tab just tells you where to fret the string but some adds rhythm flags) . The problem with tab is that you must KNOW how the song goes before you play. With notation, you can know mostly how a song goes and fill in the blanks with the notation.

The ($5.50) Alfred handy guide, (11 x 4 inches) How to Play the Ukulele has a fretboard map with all the notes listed for each fret. on the back cover.

The 45-page booklet show music notation on the staff with each note market in white type on the notehead.

This gives you an E note on the first line of staff along with the notehead with an E ikn white type.

The re-entrant tuned ( high G) uke only has about an octave (a few go above the 12th fret),

This means the note range goes from Middle C to high A (if your uke stops at the 12th fret).

This means that any old songbook within that range can be played melody style on your uke. You can also plink out the melody line of Jumpin Jim’s books. (If you play the notes, you get double your money’s worth.

It also means that once you understand this basic idea, you no longer have to depend on books written expressly for the uke.

Further, you can take better advantage of fake books. Fake books look like the style used by Jumpin JIm — a simplified sheet music with a melody line (one note at a time) , a chord listed above the music staff: C, C7, G, Am without chord boxes. You can buy pop fake books, Beatle fake books, blues, country, Broadway.

With a little bit of effort, you can not only play the chords, but the melody of a song from a fake book.

The key signature shows what flats or sharpts go with a song. The tricky part is that Bb in the key signature stays in effect for the entire song. If you have trouble remembering that Bb, get your pencil out and put a flat sign next to each Bb — until it becomes automatic.

Now if you have a low G uke, your lowest note in the G below middle C which will give you a slightly more range.

Hope this helps

Tab basically tells you which fret on which string you press in order to make the note above it (if it’s the staff & tab display). Plain tab doesn’t have the notes but it’s the same thing, “Just press here”.

Woodshed did a pretty fine job of explaining tab and linked to it up in the original post. Check it out.

I’ve been learning fiddle and the book were using is a lot like what is used in grade school band class. The book is the American Fiddle Method and it teaches you where the notes are on the fingerboard and you read this in standard notation. Very minimal use of any kind of tablature, just introducing where the notes are initially above the staff with a number, and slowly builds to knew fingerings etc. I know the fingerboard of a fiddle way better then my uke, so well I can already play without looking, and I’ve been playing fiddle for 4 months now… It’s very frustrating when I’ve been trying to get uke down for 2 years and the fret board is still a big puzzle to me.

The second diagram in the post on this page shows what the FACE notes look like. The third diagram shows what the EGBDF notes look like.

So examples: if a note is in the space between the bottom two lines, it’s F, and if a note is right on the middle line it’s B.