I have 3 pretty good guitar takes, and between them I have a pretty decent lead guitar  line.
This is my first project, so I'm a little afraid of screwing up. I was thinking of exporting the 3 tracks, opening a new project,importing them ,and THEN edit. That way I can always just do punches next time John is here to fix stuff if I can't make the edits turn out right. I'm wanting to see if I can get some editing chops. The song is nicely formed so plenty of spaces for editing phrases...Not so much bad notes here and there as better phrasing etc on different parts of each take. I am afraid if I insert a track and then drag good phrases, I'll get confused about what came from and went to where as I am auditioning and moving, and waste time. I still haven't wrapped my head around the record 2 take 3 type headings in the take tracks.
 
Tx,
CharlyG

Hi. What about saving the project as a copy, just in case you do something you do not want to keep (or screwing up as you said). Just insert an audio (or what type of track you need), select correct input, mark record enable and record what needs recording. You will always have the original, since you are working on a copy. Hope that helps.
Best of luck.

yea, just number or name it as a file.  Do it all the time.  Stairway to heaven, guitar edit 1 or some such

Keep in mind that Sonar doesn't mess with the recorded audio files, they're just _there_ and you can start over anytime. (Even on edits where you make "permanent" changes, the changes are automatically copies of the originals.) Also, there is undo, undo, undo, undo, undo. Works really well. Also, also, there is versioning in Sonar Preferences. You can have a "backup" of each stage of your editing work saved to disc. Eight versions, eighteen versions, whatever.
 
NAME your clips to help avoid confusion. When/if you split some of them during editing, NAME the splits. There's the ability to add notes to each clip too.
 
You can be a bit nervous, that's okay. Sonar (like a good DAW) is made for exactly what you are attempting, it will support you and forgive you when you mess up (as it has forgiven and supported a lot of forum members!). I advise, don't overthink it, just do it. The clips won't go anywhere (um, you DO have backups don't you? Anderton's law goes something like: A digital recording does not really exist until it exists in at least two locations.)
 
Also (I've used "also" a lot, mea culpa), don't be afraid to burn a couple of CDs of your work in the process, to take to the car/beach/friend's house and listen/learn from what you've done.
 
The great thing is that Sonar helps you avoid the few technical wrong ways to try to do what you want, and makes it easy for you to try the myriad right ways. (IE there is no single right way).

Yeah, I save a copy after every recording session, so I only have to go back one copy to fix any screwups. I just get confused by all the record/take numbers that never seem to fit what I thought I was doing....How about a sticky undo?
 
I made a silly mistake while recording, we did a take, I set up for another take, and hit the record button for the 1st take! D'oh!

Clone the tracks, press "H" to open the track manager, hide the originals and mess around with the clones to your heart's content.
 
Also, look into recording in "comp mode." If you had done it that way you'd now have a bunch of take lanes in one track instead of three separate tracks. Sonar makes it (relatively) easy to pull together one good track from a number of takes.

I'm in comp mode, that is why I am confused about the names of the take lanes, not tracks....such as record 4 take 2?
 
Well, not always, when I can\t figure out those numbers, I just do the next session on a new track to get a complete take.
Maybe not a good idea, because I am doing at least half of what was suggested. I just need to clone/copy the best take to a new track and just replace those bad parts with good parts from other takes............ Sometimes it takes a baseball bat between the eyes to get my attention!

If you're in comp mode, open the take lanes and see what you've got. Check out this video for help with comping.

Holy crap I'm only 2 minutes in, and I see I was making it WAY too complicated!!

LOL... is good to hear actually! Comping for single tracks is rather slick, just be mindful of the cursor appearance! As you hover over different hot spots on a clip the cursor will shift appearance on what its "function" is.
 
Just to reiterate the above, SONAR does not destroy any audio file. When you bounce, a new file is created to replace the old. Because of this I tend to save a project with a new name at any "heavy" bounce/render points, so can go back to them. I do not get into the habit of cloning tracks, as the CPU will still be processing them unless archived (and no "real" reason to carry this baggage anyway).
 
FYI - As you mentioned "Record 4, Take 2" above... get in the habit of immediately renaming a new track with a nice descriptive name! That name becomes any recorded clip name, and long after you have moved on from your project, if you look into the audio folder "Record 2 (36).wav" is just going to make things messy. Much better to see "Rhythm Gtr Dist (36).wav" in that folder (when that day comes). You can also rename in the inspector window, but is far better to get into the naming habit.