To determine the natural frequencies and damping ratios of composite laminated plates, we present an officient modal parameter estimation technique by developing residual spectrum based structural system reconstruction. The modal parameters can be estimated from poles and residues of the system transfer functions, derived from the state space system matrices. From vibration tests on cross-ply and angle-ply composite laminates, the natural frequencies and damping ratios can be estimated using the modal coordinates of the structural dynamic system reconstructed from the experimental frequency response functions. These results are compared with those of finite element analysis and single-degree-of-freedom curve fitting.