Depending on the music you’re listening to, watching a VU meter bounce to the music is always a good time. So why not integrate the VU meter right into the audio source? That’s what [Matikas] did, and ...
Before opening the Arduino software, wire up the Arduino according to the circuits page using the 8MHz minimalist breadboard circuit but with a 10k pull-up resistor on the reset pin (physical pin 1).