This paper presents a modeling method for the vibration analysis of a rotating beam the slenderness ratio of which is relatively small. The smaller the slenderness ratio becomes, the larger the shear and rotary inertia effects become. Such effects become critical for the accurate estimation of the natural frequencies and modeshapes, especially higher frequencies and modes, as the angular speed increases. It is also shown that the effects are important for the accurate estimation of the critical angular speed of the beam.