At the base level, everyone knows their instrument. Beyond what it is called, they know the very basic parts of the instrument from when they were first taught. Either the diagram from the book they learned from, or the parts their instructor pointed out, they know at least what and where general parts are and somewhat their function. But, that's not going to help you out when trying to describe a problem.
Too many times, a person will come to me and state that it just doesn't work or sounds off. When pressed to be more specific, they can sometimes be able to tell me what notes don't work, or how things don't work when they try to do a certain thing. Those can help me to close in on a problem, but they don't help that much. Sometimes, just knowing what keys are which, or what parts are called on the instrument. Beyond the mouthpiece, there are many parts to any instrument, and each one does do something for the overall functionality of it.
Woodwind players should know what the keys are for their instrument. Look at the fingerings for a note, and the lowest finger down is the key for that note. I know this should be fairly common knowledge, but sometimes it isn't. The more you know about the way your instrument is put together, the better off you'll be.
Brass, your instrument is easier to know in that there are far less moving parts than woodwinds. This means you have even less of an excuse for not knowing the names of instrument parts. Slide parts, names for different sections of the instrument, etc. All these parts have a name and sometimes the name changes where it transitions to another part. There is a reason for this. Different sections to the same part have to be fixed in different ways.
All this points to one thing. When you do have to bring your instrument to get fixed, maintained, or even assessed, The clearer and more knowledgeable you are about your instrument, what its parts are and what is going on with it, the easier your friendly neighborhood technician will be able to focus on exactly what the problem is, and won't have to spend the first section of time just hunting for what could be wrong. They will zero in on the trouble spot, fix that, then only spend a moment or two going over the rest of the instrument to make sure it's functioning correctly.
The alternative, with unsure and vague answers, the tech then has to assume anything and everything is wrong with what you bring them, and go through a checklist to remove things they find not wrong till only the true problems are left. This takes time, and time is paid for by your bank account. It is also somewhat frustrating for a repair technician to be given an instrument that "I dunno, it's just not working," and spend a good chunk of time on a scavenger hunt to find out the entire problem was a 30 second fix.
The more you know about your instrument, it's parts and how they function, the better you and your tech will get along, and the quicker and cheaper all your repairs will be. This will save your wallet and your technician's stress level
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