Amplifying Audio signal for use with TIP31 power transistor and LED array

Several things puzzle me about this project,

How do you expect to drive a matrix from an audio signal, a matrix needs precicse signals driving coloum and rows?
Where does the Arduino fit in?
Why a TIP31? These things have a very low gain.
What do you hope it looks like at the end?

It sounds to me like a crappy instructables project.