The experimental investigations on the motion characteristics of a marine riser both in air and water were performed. The static deflections and natural frequencies of the riser in air including the effect of static offset, were obtained from the experiment. These results were compared with those of theoretical prediction by using a simple asymptotic formula. In order to investigate the nonlinear motion characteristics of the riser subject to nonlinear viscous drag and large displacement, the forced oscillation tests both in air and water were performed. In the forced oscillation tests in air, it was found that the transverse motion due to geometrical nonlinearity grows when the amplitude of in-line oscillation exceeds a certain critical value, say, order of 1-2 diameters. The planar motions of the riser in water due to vortex shedding and the geometrical nonlinearity were described. Some of these results were also compared with those of theoretical analysis, which uses a numerical perturbation technique based on the derived linear asymptotic solutions, and found to be generally in good agreement.