Suggestions Sought For Simplest Self-Recording Devices

I love the music and videos on this site!  How and on what devices do you amazing musicians make these recordings?  I would like to record myself playing both in audio that could be transferred easily onto a CD (or onto this site) and in a video that could be put onto a DVD (or onto this site).  Because I live in an area with no cell service, I do not have a cell phone that would have those capabilities.  I do own and have made audio recordings of myself on a Zoom H2 recorder, but do not know how to eliminate the unpleasant recorded sound of the device being turned on at the beginning of a tune.  I attempted to do this with Audacity, but the software was not intuitive and I was overwhelmed by the manual.  Any suggestions you can offer would be greatly appreciated.