I'm still puzzled with the standard Mandarin tones and I don't have a Chinese speaker around to train me.
I watched this video yesterday which intends to make things easier:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zpD6rigORXc
It was a nice surprise that the guy says the 1st tone does not need to be elevated higher than one's natural pitch; however, every other video or article on the Internet suggest it does.
So I understand that the 3rd tone must be lower than the other ones (with a "bass" voice); so far the biggest confusion is the 1st tone and its relation to the 2nd and 4th. Does it have to be higher or lower than their trajectories?
According to the guy from the video, the 2nd tone would rise from 1st one up and the 4th would fall from above until it reaches it. But according to the other materials around this is not how it is. Can anyone help me understand the 1st, 2nd and 4th tones? And I guess also how to make sure I don't confuse the 2nd and 3rd tones, since if it is only a matter of pitch I might be mixing them up.
I think it will be a lot easier to speak if I keep the 1st tone where my voice naturally is and I don't have to raise it - but do natives speak like that at some places or is it only a workaround?
Also if we trust Wikipedia, the 1st tone is called 陰平 (yīn píng) "dark level", the 2nd 陽平 (yáng píng) "light level", the 3rd - 上 (shǎng/shàng) "rising" and the 4th - 去 qù ("departing"). Does that mean that in the understanding of native speakers only the low-voice bass tone is considered rising? And what makes the 1rs and 2nd tones both level, if in Western understanding only the first one is?
One thing is clear - whenever I speak, I seem to mess up all tones and Chinese speakers make me repeat a few times, apparently they cannot make out what I'm saying because of the tones.
PS And an extra question: the "no-tone" option is also elevated as the 1st tone, isn't it - thus making it practically the same, maybe that's the reason why in bopomofo they're rendered the same? Or is that just bad pronunciation from online dictionaries?