There is currently considerable interest in strengthening the connections between formal music education and informal, self-motivated music practices. Participants in this study were adults who were self-motivated to learn formal music concepts, but had encountered barriers to doing so independently. The study offered them individual online tutoring, with the goal of better understanding the barriers that may arise when adults try to use open online resources for independent learning. Nine out of 11 long-term participants attained or made appreciable progress toward their goals. Activities that reflected their immediate goals and employed familiar tools and concepts appeared to be crucial to participants' development of useful connections between informal learning situations and the relevant formal concepts, with implications for music education as well as for open online education.