The tones modulate the syllables to change their meaning. This means that the common words can be much shorter than in languages that don't have this feature, such as Indo-European languages. To elaborate on how the tones work let's use mandarin as an example and lets use the syllable "ma" (using pinyin romanization) to se how it's meaning changes:

1. 媽 mā (mother) - First tone: a level and higher pitch 
2. 麻 má (hemp) - Second tone: rising, start from a lower pitch and end at a slightly higher pitch - 
3. 馬 mǎ (horse) - Third tone: falling rising, start at a neutral tone then dip to a lower pitch before ending at a higher pitch, 
4. 罵 mà (scold) - Fourth tone: falling, start the syllable at a slightly higher than neutral pitch then go quickly and strongly downwards
5. 吗 ma (question word) - Fifth tone: no tone

Concerning the second question of whether the difference in the number of tones makes a difference in speed or efficiency, the answer is not simply based on the number of tones. Cantonese has technically 9 sounds but considering different lengths and consonant endings the true number of distinct tones is actually 6, so the languages are not that far away. However, it is reasonable to say that that both Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken faster compared to some other languages due to the tones keeping the words shorter.

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