1st tone ā - a high flat tone, like singing

2nd tone á - rising, from the middle to the top, like a question

3rd tone ǎ - low tone, as low as you can, it often becomes vocal fry. (also rises a bit at the end of sentences or in isolation)

4th tone à - falling, from the top to the bottom, sounds angry

there’s also a secret “neutral tone” that happens to the second syllable of many two-syllable words, or for grammatical particles. it changes tone height based on where the previous tone ended, so basically if the previous tone ends low, the neutral tone is high and vice versa. these syllables are also shorter in duration and some diphthongs are flattened.

No, my language learning just kind of fell apart.

I learned tones through a lot of listening and practice (same with pronunciation in general although for that I suggest looking at the IPA earlier rather than later). I still occasionally mess up the third tone in some words like 美国.