Within Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), in general, and Taranaki, in particular, research on understanding experiences of individual practice for amateur adult string players has been limited. In 2021, with the aim of contributing to musical development in the Taranaki Symphony Orchestra (TSO), four adult string instrumentalists agreed to participate in semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed, coded, analysed and interpreted. Through the lens of interpretive phenomenology and a realist stance in music psychology, this article examines the emergence of complex, layered and dynamic experiences from players, including "Gestalt," "deliberate" and "additive" approaches to practising music (Tan et al., Tan, S.L., Pfordresher, P. & Harre, R. (2010). Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance. (77,79, 179-197). Psychology Press. and "metacognitive strategies" (Concina, Concina, Frontiers in Psychology 10:1-17, 2019), "performance cues" (Ginsborg et al., Ginsborg, J., Chaffin, R., & Nicholson, G. (2006, August 22-26). Shared performance cues: Predictors of expert individual practice and ensemble rehearsal. [Conference session]. In 9th International conference on music perception and cognition, university of Bologna, Italy. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265508058), "mental models" (Keller, P.E. Annual New York Academy of Sciences 1252:206-213, 2012) and "mental imagery rehearsal" (Davidson-Kelly, K., Moran, N. & Overy, K. (2012, July 23-28). Learning and memorisation amongst advanced piano students: a questionnaire survey. [Conference session]. International Conference on Music Perception and the 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Thessaloniki, Greece. http://icmpc-escom2012.web.auth.gr/files/papers/248_Proc.pdf, Davidson-Kelly, K. (2014). Mental Imagery Rehearsal Strategies for Expert Pianists. [Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of Edinburgh]. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/14215) in music psychology. After receiving written feedback from stakeholders, recommendations include the implementation of individual practice forms (Hart, J.T. Music Educators Journal 101:57-64, 2014), and creating an online space for TSO players to exchange and reflect on individual practice experiences.