Vocal exercises will be key since it’s a tonal language. When you practice, try hard to match every aspect of the examples. Like full blown try to sound exactly like the person speaking. You likely won’t match their vocal quality exactly but it will certainly help you get the pitch changes.

As with any language, you should try forcing yourself to write/speak in Mandarin. (Writing Chinese characters can suck though so typing or writing out the pinyin is probably a better if you’re just starting out.) The best way to learn to speak a language is going to be trying to translate your thoughts into that language. You might be able to parse mandarin well if you only listen to or read it, but speaking requires more thought and helps you build vocabulary better.

As you get more used to the language, watching shows or reading books in the language will become easier and should allow you to learn the meanings of words through context clues—like children do—rather than relying on translation/dictionaries directly.

好运！