The infrared band structure for the methyl torsion and amine hydrogen symmetric wagging in methylamine is calculated by ab initio procedures. The influence of the amine hydrogen symmetric bending on the wagging spectrum is considered explicitly. For this purpose, the potential energy surfaces and kinetic parameters were determined at the RHF/MP2 level with the 6-311G++(3df, 3dp) basis set. The numerical results were fitted to symmetry adapted functional forms. The Schrödinger equations for the nuclear motions were solved by expanding the solutions into products of trigonometric functions. The band frequencies and intensities were calculated from the energy levels, the vibrational functions, and the electric dipole moment variations. The calculated spectra were compared with the available experimental data. It was found that the torsional splittings and frequencies are relatively well reproduced, whereas the wagging and bending frequencies are slightly too high. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.