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6.18.4 How to Write Chord Progressions, Rule #4: Take Advantage of Tonic Chord Stability
Here’s another good reason to make sure you do establish tonality right away (see rule #1):
Moving to any chord—even to a chromatic chord—from the tonic chord sounds palatable to the ear, once you’ve established tonality.
The tonic chord is the stable bedrock chord of the key. So if you move to a chromatic chord from the tonic chord, like this:
C – B♭ – C (in the key of C major)
it’s usually a good idea to return to the tonic chord (or at least to a chord in the harmonic scale) right away, as shown above, to preserve the sense of tonality (assuming you’re not modulating).