Curved beam elements with two nodes based on shallow beam geometry and strain interpolations are employed in eigenvalue analysis. In these elements, the displacement interpolation functions and mass matrices are consistent with strain fields. To assess the quality of the element mass matrix in free vibration problems, several numerical experiments are performed. In these analysis, both the inconsistent mass matrices using linear displacement interpolation function and the consistent mass matrices are used to show the difference. The numerical results demonstrate that the accuracy is closely related to the property of the mass matrix as well as that of the stiffness matrix and that the mass matrix consistent with strain fields is very beneficial to eigenvalue analysis. Also, it is proved that the strain based elements are very efficient in a wide range of element aspect ratios and curvature properties.