A modelling method for the bending vibration analysis of rotating cantilever beams employing finite element method is presented in this paper. Different from the conventional modelling method in wh ich only Cartesian deformation variables are used, a non-Cartesian deformation variable is introduced and approximated to derive the equations of motion. Numerical results obtained by using the presented modelling method are compared to those obtained by using other methods in the related literature, and the accuracy of the presented method is verified through the comparison study. The presented modelling method is superior to other previous methods in a sense that several advantages of the previous methods are incorporated into the presented method.