Heya, I don’t know if I spelled the two titles right, but here’s my question: does anyone have a suggestion for a “set” of tunes I can play either of these tunes with? I really like Atholl, but don’t know what to play it with, since the rythm isnt the “usual” rythm, and I just learned Pony, and still wondering what to put around it… Thanks!
“The Athol Highlanders” is really a Scottish pipe march in 6/8 time, and it benefits by being played a little slower than your average jig. There are lots of Scots pipe marches - you might want to try “The Jig of Slurs” or “Troy’s Wedding” to go with it. “Troy’s Wedding” is a great tune and the syncopated third part will give you tricky passages to practice - great fun when you’ve mastered it.
“Langstrom’s Pony” (or “The Langstern Pony”) goes well with any number of tunes. One pairing I like comes from an old Tommy Peoples recording. He plays “The Gander in the Pratie Hole” and the goes into L’s Pony. The last phrase of “Gander” is reminiscent of the first phrase of the other, so the transition is a nice suprise.
Guitarists will like the key change, too. 
I agree. When I played Athol Highlanders I always followed it with Jig of Slurs. Athol Hlndrs has 6 parts and Jig of Slurs has 4, but you can reduce this if you wish by eliminating parts after you play Parts 1 and 2. If you do so, you must eliminate a pair of parts, not just one because Parts 3 and 4 belong with eachother, as do Parts 5 and 6.
This is because the majority of Scottish and Irish folk tunes have two basic parts (think of it as a sort of “verse” and “chorus” relationship.) Additional parts are variations of the original two part tune.
Jigs are played in cut time usually, but you can march to jigs by slowing them down to march tempo … 90-120 beats per minute, in fact you must if you want to play them to accompany dances at a ceilidh.
Having a number of tunes you can play back to back allows you to ramble on and on long enough to get all the dancers through a “Strip the Willow” a couple of times. Just play two tunes, would be terribly monotonous, particularly for the music maker(s)!
When I play a dance set starting with Athol Highlanders on my pipes, I follow with Jig o’ Slurs, and then The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre, The Glasgow Gaelic Club, and The Old Barn Jig, (and whatever else may come into my head as I go along!) in that order.
Mal
If Langstrom’s Pony is the one I am thinking of, it goes very well with The Mooncoin Jig-- they sound very much alike, and are both terrific tunes.