Ataa Mensah, a percussionist in 6+ ensembles, has been surrounded by music since he was a baby. His dad is a composer (one who has written commissioned songs for the school’s band before), and Ataa has followed in his footsteps and is writing some of his own music.
What musical groups are you in?
In school I’m in the band and orchestra, and for extracurriculars I’m in jazz band, percussion ensemble and wind ensemble. Outside of school I work with this music education group called Walker West so I’m in their combo and sometimes the people in that group will slip off into other smaller groups and we’ll do some paid gigs.
About how much time do you spend rehearsing or practicing a week?
I spend about 9 hours a week in rehearsals. Depending on the week I might spend a couple more hours at performances if I have a concert or a gig. Although practicing is important, I don’t practice as much as I probably should; but I do a lot of listening or practicing with my hands or in my mind, not just getting on a set. A lot of the stuff I do is listening and memorizing tunes and then working on them with other people in the rehearsals.
How often do you work on composing?
I work on it every week and in a sense, every day, because I do a lot of different stuff with instrumentals and lyrics. Usually ideas will come to my head and I’ll write them down on my phone or work on them on pianos. Depending on where each composition is at I might write them out if I plan to work on them with an ensemble and develop them. In a sense I’m working on them every day; how much I’m working on them is different, it could be just a couple seconds or I could spend a couple hours trying to put a piece together.
Have you had any groups you are in play anything you’ve written?
Yes, I’ve had my jazz combos both here and outside of school play my pieces and I plan to do more stuff this year.
What are your inspirations when you’re composing?
There’s definitely some major inspirations in all of my music in the sense that I grew up with African music—traditional Ghanaian music—so that’s definitely shown in my music. I definitely go through phases of what I’m working on and what influences me. There’s also some influences from the music I’m listening to when I work on a piece, be it classical, indie, or hip-hop.
What’s your favorite piece you’ve composed?
There’s a piece I’m working on right now that took a lot of time and effort for me to make. It’s been something that I’ve thought about in the past and wasn’t sure if it would be possible or if I would be able to do it but now that it’s almost finished and almost something that’s come into fruition that’s really nice.
Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to become more involved in creating music?
Just listen to stuff. There’s nothing new under the sun so a lot of ideas you’re going to get from listening to other stuff. Be okay with what you make. It might be uncomfortable putting what you make out there but original ideas are original ideas and people are probably going to like it so just try different things, take inspiration from different things and have fun.
