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I was recently ambushed by a fellow church member who asked if I wanted to play some duets in church. He also wanted to revive his high school skill level.
HOWEVER, his instrument is the baritone horn! We had a practice session and I did not like the violin and horn together. We had a second session and I liked it even less. I used an amplifier for the violin but then I did not like the sound with the amp.
An actual performance is out of the question. What is a good way to break up this duo without a lot of bad feelings ?
Honesty is always the best bet. Tell him you broke your arm and can't play any longer. Just tell him it isn't working out since a violin and a horn just doesn't go together. If they did they would have violins in a marching band.
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I agree with Kevin. Blame your violin.
OK, it sounds like there are two things going on. There's the playing in church thing and then there is the church member wanting to get back in the habit of playing thing. If you can accommodate the latter by just getting together every so often with your acquaintance for an informal jam session (can a violin and a horn even do that? Eh, make it work.) then it will probably make the former end more smoothly. Actually, without the former keeping you together then the duets would probably fade off naturally after a few weeks.
Maybe something like this:
"Friend, I love getting together to play with you and I would enjoy continuing to meet on occasion. However, I don't feel comfortable with performing as my violin is not naturally able to match your horn's volume and I am unable to use an amp without my instrument sounding terrible. I fear that now I am so self-conscious about the way my instrument sounds that I won't be able to focus on playing well at all. I'm sorry I have to back out on you."
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"Tell him you broke your arm and can't play any longer."
LOL, that is hilarious 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Honorary advisor
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Invite a friend of yours to a practice session. He should have been briefed earlier about your dislike. He should casually enter and comment in such a way as to drop the duet. From a violinist you become a dramatist.
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it ..(William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night)
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As we are going into more "fun" solution to drop the duet, and if your ego is not too easily scared, you could start to play terribly bad. Doing this, you would BE dropped 😀
@ Suresh You will be proud of the plot I am working on.
I suggested to Mr. Horn that we need a piano part in order to "mediate" between the horn and the violin. And Mr. Horn has actually started to arrange a session with one church piano player who, I'm sure, has at least college level credentials. A real "pro".
So, something has to come to light when that practice session hits. Maybe the piano pro will faint ? Anyhow, no matter what, I will say that the horn sounds great with the piano and does not need a violin !!!! Then it's up to the piano player to take the bait or not.
Let me say that the horn player is doing OK as a horn player. But that's an instrument for much larger groups.
PS Playing terrible as a decoy ...... I've been doing that because I can't hear my own part 
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I slept on it and the best I could come up with is to pay someone to mug the fellow and steal his horn. You should probably stick with the pianist intervention, however.
Yeah, I hope it works out in an easy manner.
I have already this year survived a play-by-memory and ear volunteer who had no memory, no ear and no notion of timing so the horn caper should be a breeze in comparison.
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Oliver said
Yeah, I hope it works out in an easy manner.
I have already this year survived a play-by-memory and ear volunteer who had no memory, no ear and no notion of timing so the horn caper should be a breeze in comparison.
That sounds...painful.
Anyway, the pianist sounds like a great idea.
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