tonal languages?

Hello
   I'm something of a newbie conlanger and I was
wondering if someone could please answer a couple of
questions.  Could someone please tell me how tonal
languages work.  I'm working on my first conlang and
making it a tonal language sounds kind of cool.  I was
thinking that, assuming I understand correctly, the
speakers of this language would be able to make
sentences with many shades of meaning by changing the
tones of certain words so that the grammar implies one
word and the way the word was actually spoken implies
another.  Do you think such a system would work, or
just become confusing?
   Also, does anyone know a way that I can teach
myself to speak my conlang?  I don't actually know any
tonal languages so I need to teach myself how to
recognize and speak the different sounds, but I'm not
sure how to do this.  Does anyone have any
suggestions?
---Etak

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