This paper examines the dispersion relation governing the wave propagation on cylindrical shells. The assumption of thin shells allows the dispersion relation to be separated into three relations related to the propagation of flexural waves and two types of membrane waves. Those relations are used to identify the characteristics of the wave number curves. The dispersion relation provides two and three closed wave number curves below and above the ring frequency. Above the ring frequency three wave number curves are clearly identified to be those of flexural, shear and longitudinal waves, respectively. Below the ring frequency, the characteristics of two wave number curves are identified with dependence of the direction of wave propagation.