It won't be all sun and fun for Matthew Kearns of Butler when he and his wife travel to Honolulu in February. He'll take the time to honor servicemen past and present in his own way — with his bagpipes.

Matthew and Felicia Kearns plan to leave Feb. 2 for Hawaii to visit Matthew's niece, Miranda Vinson, who is married to Navy Lt. Commander John Vinson, a pilot who was recently deployed to an undisclosed location, said Felicia Kearns.

While there, Matthew will play his bagpipes at noon Feb. 4 at the U.S.S. Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, which is next to the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.

“Most people probably know it as the Pearl Harbor Monument. The U.S.S. Arizona is part of that,” said Matthew of the national monument.

Felicia said his niece arranged for her uncle's performance.

Vinson had originally approached the monument officials.

“We referred them to the Bowfin,” said Robert Burk, commercial services program manager at the national monument. “The forms of musical entertainment at the monument are limited to military personnel and school bands carefully screened to play patriotic music.”

“Obviously, I will play all the service anthems, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and several patriotic songs, and then the naval hymn, 'Eternal Father, Strong to Save,' and 'Amazing Grace,' of course,” said Matthew.

“I timed it out, it will be about 15 minutes,” said Matthew of his solo concert's length.

“I have to learn 'Anchors Aweigh' and the Air Force anthem, 'Off We Go,' but the rest I know. I will be practicing between now and when I go to Hawaii,” he said. “I am very excited. It's a great way to honor those people who serve, who continue to serve, especially those people who have passed on that day.”

He has been a bagpiper for five years with the Lion and Thistle Highland Pipe Band of Butler whose six members march in area parades.

On his own, Matthew said, he's piped at weddings, funerals and special birthday parties.

“I play on the first day of school at St. Killian's Roman Catholic School. I've been doing that for three or four years now,” he said.

When he plays in Hawaii in February he will be wearing his full outfit, called a “Prince Charlie”: kilt, vest and waistcoat and short tuxedo-like jacket.

He said the most requested songs are “Amazing Grace” and “Scotland the Brave.”

“It's the song used in the Irish Spring Soap commercials,” he said of “Scotland the Brave.” “We laugh about that all the time.”

He took up the bagpipes in 1996.

Felicia said, “It was a Christmas gift from me for him to learn to play the bagpipes, which has backfired on me. I bought him lessons to play from George Balderose, a famous bagpipe player in Pittsburgh.”

“I knew that he always wanted to play. I thought that was a unique gift,” said Felicia.

“My lineage is Scots and Irish, and I figured somewhere along the line I should be true to form,” said Matthew, who is a human resource manager for Atlas Resource Partners in Pittsburgh. “I've thought it was a very unique-sounding instrument, very ethereal sounding. You have a strong emotional reaction when you start playing them.”

Not that he was playing them any time soon. He said he spent two years learning on an oboe-like instrument called a chamber pipe.

Felicia said, “He (Balderose) teaches you on the chamber. He lets you know when you're ready to go onto the pipes.”

Matthew said, “It takes two, seven years. Some people never do it.”

But in 1998, Matthew bought his first set of bagpipes. He bought his present set, McCallum pipes made in Scotland, in 2006.

“You really don't have to read music. There are only nine notes to it. You don't have to read music, but it helps. You learn by repetition, just playing it over and over and over again,” said Matthew. “It's called 'putting a tune in hand,' so that your hand knows it. It's all muscle memory.'

Matthew said he has between 75 and 100 songs in his repertoire, that is “with a little bit of remembrance.” “If I look at the music once, I can probably put it back in my hands,” he said.

To play the bagpipes, Matthew said, the player first exhales into a pipe called the blow stick to force air into the instrument's bag.

A holed pipe called the channeler is what actually makes the tune, Matthew said, and three other pipes are called the drones.

“By inflating the bag and keeping the bag regulated, that's what makes the noise most people associate with bagpipes,” said Matthew. “That's where that droning sound comes from.”

So, a player is working the channeler with his fingers to produce the tune, squeezing the bag under his arm to produce the droning sound and perhaps all the while marching in a parade. “There's a lot going on,” said Matthew.