[1] Norman learned to read music at an early age while sitting at his mother's side, and began playing violin at the age of 7[1] He was injured while playing baseball, which caused him to switch from violin to French horn.
[3] He then turned back to music, attending Juilliard School on a graduate scholarship.
[3] In 1937 he joined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as a French horn player, and was employed there until 1940.
Conn company to hire him in 1940, where he researched the acoustic properties of their musical instruments.
[3][1] His most famous invention came in 1945 when Pickering, frustrated with the acoustical limitations of sound reproduction from phonograph records, developed a pickup (a device which translates the vibrations of the needle into electrical impulses for amplification) which reduced record wear and significantly increased the accuracy of the sounds coming through the speaker.
[3] Listening to the results from his new device, Pickering felt that the improvement in sound "wasn't just a little, it was magnificent."
[3] In the 1970s, he was employed at the Southampton Hospital, researching ultrasonic technology,[3] where he developed a method to detect eye diseases.