Provided are a motor driving method, a program therefor, and a motor driving apparatus which can shorten starting time of a vibration wave motor. A driving circuit of the vibration wave motor includes a control unit. The control unit controls two-phase driving voltages applied to an electro-mechanical energy conversion element of the vibration wave motor. The control unit controls a phase difference between the two-phase driving voltages to drive a driven member at a predetermined speed in a fixed state of frequencies of the two-phase driving voltages. In this case, when the phase difference is set outside a predetermined range, the control unit changes the frequencies of the two-phase driving voltages.