He began by talking about the concept of sound in jazz, how musicians develop their own unique and individual sound, approach and style. He pointed out that classical players, too, have their own sound. He also talked about the effects trumpet players can achieve on their instruments, compared to what other instrumentalists are capable of producing. Sax players, he said, can generally run changes faster than trumpet players, and guitar, bass and piano players often have a better understanding of harmonic structure. Trumpet players, however, can hit a note then crescendo (which a piano player can't do), or growl, use various mutes, and other similar fun effects.

Soloff talked for several minutes about his ideas about warming up. He wants his first contact with the horn each day to be about music, and not simply playing exercises. One "trick" that he got from Arnold Jacobs, that he uses when his sound is not happening the way he wants it to sound, is to take the mouthpiece in his left hand and buzz the line he's trying to play. Simultaneously, he fingers the trumpet with his right hand, while imagining the sound he's striving for. He demonstrated this for the audience, and a noticeable change was evident. He also commented that he would warm up this way every day on both of the mouthpieces that he uses.

This led into brief discussions on breathing (he recommends that trumpet players read the Arnold Jacobs books on breathing), the mental aspects of trumpet playing (how a player may be able to play a note when not reading music, but as soon as the note shows up in the music, it's impossible to play), and how Soloff chooses equipment to help him achieve a desired sound.

Soloff then fielded several questions from the audience. The first was about practicing shakes ­ Soloff suggested using Arban's lip slur pages, and going up beyond the written exercises, and gradually speeding them up. He was also asked about transcribing, how a trumpet player would go about bringing into their playing the influence of another player. His suggestion was to learn solos by listening and imitating, rather than transcribing.

Soloff was also asked to comment on microphone technique. In his opinion, rhythm sections have gotten too loud, and as a result, trumpet players have to resort to amplification where they didn't have to before. He recommended that

Players stay about six to ten inches away from the mic to prevent distortion, and then practice getting used to playing with a microphone.