An instruction manual for the atenteben has been written by Kwasi Aduonum (born 1939), a Ghanaian educator, scholar, and composer from the Kwahu Plateau region.
The modern atenteben flute, built in B flat and C, was developed by the musicologist, composer, and flutist Ephraim Amu (1899-1995), whose pioneering work established a notated musical tradition for the instrument and included the instrument into the curriculum of major educational institutions in Ghana, notably, the Achimota Secondary School and University of Ghana.
The Kwahus are part of the Akan tribes of Ghana, sharing a boundary with the Akyem in the south and east and with the Asante in the north and west.
In 1979, the neo-traditional art music composer and founder of the Pan African Orchestra of Ghana, Nana Danso Abiam (b.
1953) introduced chromaticism and atonality in atenteben music with a new fingering mechanism that he had developed at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.
This playing mechanism employed for the first time, cross-fingerings and halving-fingerings among other over-blowing techniques that produced the entire range of chromatic and harmonic sounds of the flute.
Because different sizes of bamboo offshoot are utilized in its construction, microtonal disparities sometimes do occur in the main octaves making ensemble playing difficult.