Every year, students gather under the Campanile as the bells chime midnight to participate in the age-old ritual of mass campaniling.

But students don’t have to have a significant other to enjoy the bells of Iowa State during the day.

Everyday from 11:50 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., students throughout the campus can hear Tin-shi Tam, professor of music, play the Stanton Memorial Carillon from the top of the Campanile.

Tam is in her fifth year as the university carilloneur. Although only a few people get to play the carillon, she said it’s important for the ISU community to have a part in the operation of the campanile.

“[The carillon] belongs to everyone, in a way,” she said.

ISU’s carillon is composed of 50 bells, each of different size. The bells are manipulated by panels of large keys, which the carilloneur plays with “fists and feet instead of fingers,” Tam said.

Tam plays a variety of music on the carillon, including classical and pop music. She plays songs requested by students and faculty every Friday, and she said she’s received a wide variety of requests, including “Chopsticks” and “Stand by your Man.”

Because of the limited range of the carillon, Tam said it’s not always possible to play every song.

“Most of the time, I can’t pick up a piano piece and play it on the carillon,” she said.

Besides playing the carillon daily, Tam’s duties include teaching ISU students how to play the bells.

“A lot of students find out that the carillon is interesting,” she said.

Tam teaches an average of 6-8 students per semester in Music 126 and Music 118, although the number varies from year to year. Tam said the students she teaches are not only music majors.

“A lot of students are from different backgrounds,” she said. “I still have students from LAS, biology, physics.”

Julie Hart, junior in engineering, started taking carillon lessons last year. She said she became interested in playing the bells during her first tour of the ISU campus.

“I just thought it would be cool,” she said.

Hart said during the first two months of taking carillon lessons, she played on the practice carillon in the Music Hall. Now she plays the carillon in the Campanile “once every other week” during the evenings.

Hart said the carillon lessons help her take a break from her engineering classes.

“I think it’s a way of getting away,” she said.

Tam said students aren’t required to have prior musical training to learn to play the carillon, although keyboard experience is helpful.

“Anyone interested in carillon can take this class,” she said.