Seismic wave is a non-stationary signal,which can not be analyzed comprehensively by classical Fourier transform because of the lack of local information.To non-stationary signal,time-frequency analysis is a powerful analysis tool.In this article,the short time Fourier transform,S transform,Choi-Williams distribution and Zhao-Atlas-Mark distribution are introduced briefly.Their application results and merits demerits in distinguishing seismic waves are summarized by using the four methods to numerical examples and real seismic signals.