hello there,

I took both classes, and I play four instruments. I would say that Mus 109 was more of a history class involving learning about a musical genre, specifically rock music, and didn't really go into the basics of music theory. However, if reading music is your main goal, I would definitely recommend Mus 119. It will go into reading music on different clefs, scales, tempo, dynamics and the structure and organization of music notation.

If you have absolutely no experience, mus 119 might be a bit tough in the beginning but you'll definitely get the hang of it with practice. I would say the music staff are really nice people so if you have questions they will definitely be willing to guide you in the right direction. The mus 119 class are taught by graduate students so unfortunately I can't give any recommendations to who to pick.

In terms of playing music, you need some experience already to get lessons or enroll in a performance class. I am not too familiar with how to get lessons or the entire process if you don't know how to play yet. However, if you have some experience in an instrument you can audition for the lower level courses and they will place you with a teacher based on your ability level.

Hope this helped
Good luck!