The composition process
Norton works on a new piece. Her writing process differs for each piece but follows the same basic steps. “It’s like a pyramid structure,” Norton says. “I usually start with a melody or a bassline and build from there and fill the whole piece out.” She uses different styles of music to help her create new pieces. For her piece Ecuador, she wanted to write a samba piece. “I used Latin music ideas that I had gathered from Honors Jazz Band.”