TonesHoisanese has 5 main tones to it. The tones go as follows:
1)high tone
2)middle tone
3)low tone
4)high falling tone
5)low falling tone
Do not confuse "tones" with the tones of a musical instrument. Tone does not mean a certain musical pitch such as "middle c." Tone refers to the contour that your voice goes.
An example of this is the word for good, "ho1"(remember to use this site's romanization rules for pronunciation). "ho1" tells us that the word "ho" has a tone of 1. looking back at our tone list we see that a 1 tone is a high tone. this does not mean say "ho" as high as your voice can go, it simply means to say ho with a high tone but not one that is uncomfortable to use in everyday language.
A good way to think of tones is by thinking of english. In english when you ask a question your voice rises in pitch, right? like if you say "what?!" your voice is high. this is what tones are meant by. it is talking about pitches in your voice that are normal for everyday speaking. Therefore:

1 tone is high, meaning say the word in a high tone. try saying the word "excellent" notice that the "ex" part in excellent is higher than the cellent. the "ex" in "excellent" is the tone of 1 tone.

2 tone is middle tone. try saying "piano" the "pi" part is middle tone. this means that a word of 2 tone should be said at the same pitch as the "pi" part in "piano"

3 tone is low tone. this is like saying the "no" part in "piano." the word piano is an excellent example for tones. if you say piano you notice that the "pi" is about in the middle pitchwise and the "an" is said higher than the "pi". the "an" is like 1 tone. the "no" is said lowest of all and is like the 3 tone.
Here is where things get more complicated:4 and 5 tone.

4 tone is high falling. this means that you would start off with your voice at 1 tone and naturally fall in pitch. an example of this is when people say "ugh" if you say "ugh" out loud, notice that your voice pitch falls. the pitch that your voice says "ugh" at is almost exactly 4 tone.

5 tone is the exact same concept as 4 tone, the only difference is that your starting point, instead of being 1 tone, is 2 tone.

Some practice to help you understand the concept of tones follows:
1)hau1 means mouth
2)hau2 means steal
3)hau3 means head
4)hau4 means after/back(go into more intense detail of this word in the dictionary)
5)hau5 means thick

The above is a great example of showing how not only sound plays a part in hoisanese but so does the tone of your voice. practice with the word hau and master all 5 tones, then move on to the grammar lesson.
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