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A professora fez a percussão tocar com o trompete.

A professora fez a percussão tocar com o trompete.
The teacher made the percussion play with the trumpet.
From Lesson 292:Causative and perception verbs (mandar, fazer, ver, ouvir)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about A professora fez a percussão tocar com o trompete.

Why is the verb tocar left in the infinitive instead of being conjugated?
This is the classic causative structure you are learning! The verb fazer (here as fez) is used to say you made something happen. In Portuguese, after causative verbs like fazer, deixar, or mandar, the second verb stays in its infinitive form (tocar).
Could we change the word order to fez tocar a percussão?
Yes! With causative verbs, it is very common in Portuguese to group the two verbs together. Saying A professora fez tocar a percussão sounds perfectly natural and means exactly the same thing.
I know tocar means to touch. Why is it translated as play here?
In Portuguese, tocar is the specific verb used for playing musical instruments or producing music. You cannot use jogar (which is for sports and games) or brincar (which is for children playing) in a musical context.
Why use fez instead of fazia for the word made?
We use fez (the Pretérito Perfeito, or simple past) because the sentence describes a single, completed action. The teacher made them play at that specific moment. If this were a regular habit in band practice like saying she used to make them play, you would use the imperfect tense fazia.

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