Always Trying To Grow More Confident

I guess from when I started secondary school I became very self-concious and aware when attention was on me. It got worse a couple of years ago, I used to hide my face behind my hair all the time and felt it extremely hard to communicate with people I didn't know so well. Since then I feel that I have always been trying to make myself feel better by improving on little things to try and gain confidence. Pretty sure it's worked quite well because now I feel no need for my hair to cover my face, though I still find it hard to talk to some people and often appear shy and I fear that I may seem boring because of this. Another issue with the confidence thing is that from when I was a kid, I've always wanted a career in music- years on and this hasn't changed, yet it's impossible to go far if i'm so worried about what people think of me. I know I'm a decent musician but when performing solo I tend to mess up cos my hands shake (pretty sucky when you play guitar/bass) and I get so nervous beforehand. I've performed numerous times on my own, but it never really seems to improve. Any advice on this kinda matter? Or anyone got the same kinda problem? =)