Summary: This paper addresses a challenging problem in computational mechanics – the analysis of thick shallow shells vibrating at high modes. Existing methods encounter significant difficulties for such a problem due to numerical instability. A new numerical approach, DSC-Ritz method, is developed by taking the advantages of both the discrete singular convolution (DSC) wavelet kernels of the Dirichlet type and the Ritz method for the numerical solution of thick shells with all possible combinations of commonly occurred boundary conditions. As wavelets are localized in both frequency and co-ordinate domains, they give rise to numerical schemes with optimal accurate, stability and flexibility. Numerical examples are considered for Mindlin plates and shells with various edge supports. Benchmark solutions are obtained and analyzed in detail. Experimental results validate the convergence, stability, accuracy and reliability of the proposed approach. In particular, with a reasonable number of grid points, the new DSC-Ritz method is capable of producing highly accurate numerical results for high-mode vibration frequencies, which are hitherto unavailable to engineers. Moreover, the capability of predicting high modes endows us the privilege to reveal a discrepancy between natural higher-order vibration modes of a Mindlin plate and those calculated via an analytical relationship linking Kirchhoff and Mindlin plates.