In this paper, a technique to detect structural damage and estimate its severity using peaks and zeros of frequency response functions (FRFs) is developed. The peaks in FRFs represent the natural frequencies of the structure and the zeros provide additional information. The characteristics of peaks and zeros are defined and the calculation procedure to obtain the peaks and zeros from the relationship between frequency response function and stiffness and mass matrices are clearly explained. A structural system identification theory which is utilizing the sensitivity of stiffness of a structural member to eigenvalues, i.e., peaks and zeros, is established. The proposed method can identify damage location and its severity, with natural and zero frequencies, by estimating structural stiffness of the structure in the process of making a analytical model The accuracy and feasibility is demonstrated by numerical models of a spring-mass system and a beam structure.