The present paper proposes a generalized modal analysis procedure for non-uniform, distributed-parameter rotor-bearing systems. An exact element matrix is derived for a Timoshenko shaft model which contains rotary inertia, shear deformation, gyroscopic effect and internal damping. Complex coordinates system is adopted for the convenience in formulation. A generalized orthogonality condition is provided to make the modal decomposition possible. The generalized modal analysis by using a modal decomposition delivers exact and closed form solutions both for frequency and time responses. Two numerical examples are presented for illustrating the proposed method. The numerical study proves that the proposed method is very efficient and useful for the analysis of distributed-parameter rotor-bearing systems.