Changing pitch

Just joined and very 'green. ’ I recorded a tune but a friend suggested to would much be better if the pitch was raise slightly, I imported the file and clicked on EFFECTS the Pitch Change, and then lost the plot. I left the key as it was and just clicked the second box three times, and played it, Chinese music came out, I then realized that I had to start in the correct key so I put B flat in both boxes but altered the second box three steps to raise the pitch and it still came out terrible.

I am obviously making some basic mistake, but must plead being very inexperienced in these sort of jobs, can anybody help me please

The “Change Pitch” effect is a quick and easy way to change the pitch without changing the tempo. If you want to, for example, raise the pitch by 1 semitone (a half step), then just type in the number “1” in the “Semitones (half-steps)” text box.

Note that this effect can sound a bit weird if you adjust the pitch by more than a few semitones.
For higher quality pitch changing there is the “Sliding Time Scale / Pith Shift” effect.

Both effects are described in the manual:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/change_pitch.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/sliding_time_scale_pitch_shift.html