How important is learning standard notation (for solo/finger style)?

It is super helpful if you want to play the melody lines from the big Daily Ukulele book. That’s why/how/where I’m starting from... and that Every good boy deserves fudge / Face tools are plenty enough if you, like me, have zero background in this!

I learned standard notation before I knew there was such a thing as tablature. If you can learn both you have access to all the music you could possibly want. I believe you will find it worth the effort to learn. Practise should help you with this.

If you want to venture outside the bubble of 'ukulele players—playing with woodwind, brass and other strings—staff notation is a must. A friend of mine directs a small church orchestra—violins, woodwinds, brass, percussion—and likes having guitar and/or 'ukulele solos from time to time. However, the parts are written out in staff notation and he had no luck finding guitar and/or 'ukulele players able to read staff notation. They always want tabs and, being a saxophone/piano player, is unable to write them out. I helped him out but can't do for every piece in every service. So many 'ukulele players in church but nobody can read the parts if they involve more than simple chord strumming. And it's not that the wind players are pros or anything like that. They're mostly sight reading with basic skills learned from high school marching band. It really isn't hard to learn to read on the 'ukulele if you get the basics from the beginning.

fretie said:

It’s totally worth learning standard notation as it makes you a better musician generally and opens up a lot more possibilities when it comes to playing music with your ukulele.

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Agreed. It unlocks the language and world of music.

I always think of it as making one literate. While one can function in life without being able to read and write, only conversing with others, knowing how to read and write gives one lots more opportunities.

Take your time, doing it little by little. Learn a couple more things each week and you will get there in no time.

I want to learn to read staff notation. I used to take piano lessons, but it quickly went beyond my ability to learn. Reading tab is okay, but like gochugogi says above, it can be very limiting. I for one, don't play by ear worth a darn either, so I can't jam with other instruments.
I do believe that knowing staff notation is the next step toward being able to play by ear, which to me, is the ultimate art in musical ability.
I'm signed up for James Hill's classes, so I think I may be on the right track.

I’m very new to playing the ukulele but I’ve been playing the piano for a few years. I had great difficulty learning to read music but discovered Tenuto (https://www.musictheory.net/products/tenuto). I use the iOS app and it’s pretty good. When you select a fretboard exercise you can choose the ukulele from the instrument section of the settings menu. It makes learning music theory fun... and shouldn’t music be fun?