Thanks mate, greatly appreciate your reply.

I am not asking for spoon fed, but my issue is that I don't really know how to connect the LCD screen got from ebay. I have very limited knowledge on the Electronics stuff. I understand like connecting resistor to LED to prevent it from blown etc. But I have forgotten most of the things sadly. Maybe it's time to pick up a book and start again 

Hi I seen that you are from NSW, I am from Brisbane btw.

Well in that case I will go to Jaycar and get a soldering kit, if not, do you have any proto board recommendation? or can I just solder to Arduino  prototyping area directly?

Hi all,

I am new to electronics and I would like to build a thing that displays message and some music for my gf at her birthday/valentine.

I am using the  freetronics LCD display shield with keypad with Arduino experiment kit
http://www.freetronics.com/collections/display/products/lcd-keypad-shield#.UREBM6U4ucw

After the shield is installed there is no free pins left, so what should I do to connect other components like speaker and LED?

Your help is much appreciated.

Regards,
Andy.