Seismic wave is a non-stationary signal, which cannot 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 paper, the short time Fourier transform, S transform, Choi-Williams distribution and Zhao-Atlas-Mark distribution are introduced. The results and merits and demerits in distinguishing seismic waves are summarized by using the four methods.