A method of measuring the instantaneous period of a quasi-periodic signal includes determining an initial template (104), performing a cross-correlation between the initial template and a quasi-periodic signal (106) and selecting portions of the signal that correspond to the peaks of the correlation signal (108). The selected portions are then averaged (110) and another cross correlation is performed between the quasi-periodic signal and a template including the averaged selected portions (112). The instantaneous period is then measured from the correlation signal (114).