The paper addresses an active control of the resonant vibrations of composite beams performed by a parametric stiffness modulation. A sandwich beam composition with the continuous core is considered. The stiffness modulation is introduced by some fairly small changes in an orientation of elements of the microstructure of a core ply. The controlled vibrations are those of the dominantly flexural type excited by a transverse force acting at a low resonant frequency, whereas the stiffness modulation is performed at a comparatively high frequency identified by the resonance of a mode of the dominantly shear type. This difference in time scales of the controlled vibrations and the input signal facilitates a use of the method of direct partition of motion that predicts an existence of the modal interaction between the low-frequency and the high-frequency motions due to so-called vibrational forces. It is shown that such a parametric control can provide a significant favourable shift of the first eigenfrequency of a controlled beam (the one subjected to the stiffness modulation) from its nominal value for an uncontrolled beam. Heavy fluid loading conditions are accounted for as well as material losses in a structure. Then instead of analysis of eigenfrequencies, a problem of forced vibrations is posed and the forced frequency-amplitude response is analysed. It is demonstrated that although heavy fluid loading reduces resonant frequencies of forced vibrations, the suggested mechanism of control remains valid in these cases.