Stafford opened the master class by giving the audience a summary of his background as a student. As a high school student he was completely focused on developing as an orchestral player, and in college he shifted his interests to commercial playing such as Broadway shows and backing leading entertainers. He became paranoid about playing off-center and spent a great deal of time attempting to remedy the problem. After graduating from the University of Maryland, he became disenchanted and actually quit playing the trumpet for three months. He went to a concert featuring Wynton Marsalis, and when meeting Marsalis backstage, he was encouraged to seek the help of Bill Fielder at Rutgers University. While studying with Fielder, Stafford developed an entirely new approach to playing in which he focused on his air. One of the concepts that was of great help to him included using the syllable "ho" to inhale and "hoo" to exhale. He instructed the audience after achieving this feeling to create security in the embouchure setting by using the syllables while moving air through the mouthpiece and then the horn.  He also stressed minimizing or eliminating movement in the embouchure to reduce fatigue and increase consistency. In relationship to this concept, he recommended pivoting the horn depending on whether the person is an "upsteam" or "downstream" player.

He departed from the topic of developing technical skills to discuss his views on learning to improvise. He recommended playing through changes with a horizontal concept, and utilizing the guide tones of the third and seventh of each chord to develop as sense of the progression. He offered suggestions regarding the need for listening to as many recordings as possible to develop an understanding of the unique vocabulary of jazz. He admitted to the audience that he doesn't like to practice scales, because he prefers to use recordings to reveal the harmonies and available notes for each chord. He continued by stating that harmonic language is very personal in jazz and that players should be encouraged to experiment and utilize repetition to develop their skills.