An audio signal encoding method for encoding an audio signal including a plurality of frames, using a first encoding unit operating under a linear predictive coding scheme and a second encoding unit operating under a coding scheme which is different from the linear predictive coding scheme, the method comprising:
- switching from the second encoding unit to the first encoding unit when encoding a second frame immediately succeeding a first frame after the second encoding unit encodes the first frame;
- and
- initializing an internal state of the first encoding unit according to a predetermined method using the internal state had by the first encoding unit when the first encoding unit encoded a frame preceding the first frame, after switching from the second encoding unit to the first encoding unit.