Abstract: The major time-frequency analysis methods that have been applied to music processing are traced and the application areas described.Techniques are examined in the context of Cohen’s class,facilitating comparison and the design of new approaches.Analyses spanning pitch synchronous analysis,short-time Fourier transform(STFT),phase vocoder,constant-Q and wavelet transforms,the Wigner distribution,and the modal distribution are all covered.The limitations of Windowing methods and their reliance on steady-state assumptions and infinite duration sinusoids to define frequency and amplitude are detailed.The Wigner distribution in contrast,uses the analytic signal to define instantaneous frequency and power parameters,and the modal distribution is a linear transformation of Wigner distribution optimized.Application areas consider analysis,resynthesis,transcription,classification and recognition,visualization.