In the vibration analysis of Timoshenko beams by the finite element method, it is necessary to use a large number of elements or higher-order elements in modeling thin beams. This is because the overestimated stiffness matrix due to the shear locking phenomenon when lower-order displacement-based elements are used yields poor eigensolutions. As a result, the total number of degrees of freedom becomes critical in view of computational efficiency. In this paper, the curvature-based formulation is applied to the vibration problem. It is shown that the curvaturebased beam elements are free of shear locking and very efficient in the vibration analysis.